School's Out Again
by ArcaneHex77
Summary: Max and the flock go back to school, only to start the beginning of a whole new adventure. Very intense. Very exciting. I can't say much more without giving away all the surprises. After Fang. Don't read unless you've read Max and Fang.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my very first story… so please go easy on me! Ha-ha. Hope you all enjoy it!**

**I don't own Maximum Ride or any of the other characters. You can thank James Patterson for that.**

Max POV

I laid in my bed, my eyes still puffy from crying. How many days has it been? I couldn't remember. I felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest and thrown off the face of the earth. Actually, maybe that would be less painful.

Fang was gone. Gone! Out of my life. Probably for forever. His letter said we could meet again in twenty years or so. Could I wait that long? Twenty years seemed like ten thousand lifetimes compared to the six-- possibly seven now-- months we'd been through.

"Max?" said an all too familiar voice, belonging to the last person I wanted to see at the moment. "Max? Can we talk?"

I looked up at Jeb. He seemed sincere, but he _was_ the person who told me to never trust anybody. Not trusting people saved our butts a lot in the past. I should have gave him the dirtiest look I could manage. But no. I was too depressed to care if he wasn't trustworthy.

Even though I didn't have the energy to put on a dirty look, I did have the energy to sit up. Jeb walked over and sat next to me on my bed.

"Max, it's been two weeks now." That's how long it's been? Wow. It seemed like much longer. "The flock is worried about you. Your mother is worried about you. You can't even imagine. You're still the leader of this flock. Start leading. If you keep this up, Angel's going to become the new leader, and you wouldn't even know it."

Angel had been wanting the position for a while now. When she kicked me out and took over not too long ago, well, it was disastrous. Let's leave it at that. Honestly, I had almost forgotten about the flock. Almost. They were all I had left. Jeb was right (you can't imagine how little times I even thought that in the past six months). I needed to start taking action. I couldn't repeat my mistakes. The flock needed me.

I nodded at Jeb, then got up to get dressed in clothes that were actually clean. No, I didn't bother to speak to Jeb, thank you very much. That's just how stubborn I am.

I got dressed in one of my old tank tops, my jeans, and a white sweatshirt after Jeb left the room. After one look in the mirror, I could tell why everyone was so worried about me. I was a mess. I attempted to brush my knotty hair, then gave up and pulled it into a ponytail. After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I looked somewhat decent.

Not many of you might know this, but if you happen to sleep in your bed for two weeks straight, you end up with a lot of extra energy.

In the living room were Angel and Nudge, playing something on the computer, the Gasman, sitting on the couch with Iggy's ipod, Dylan, reading a magazine on the armchair, and Total, doing who knows what? I peeked over to see my mom and Iggy cooking something in the kitchen that smelled great.

"Hey! Look who decided to wake up. Morning sunshine," Total said. Yes, Total was a dog. Yes, he could speak. Buy you know what? He could fly too! And he really knows when to put his two cents in.

"Max! Hi, how are you feeling?" Nudge asked, looking over her shoulder. I could tell that she was being really careful with what she said because she almost never spoke a sentence that short.

"I'm feeling… fine," I uttered. How was I feeling? I wasn't going to say excellent, or absolutely miserable. I could say, "I'm feeling hunky-dory" but I didn't want to be sarcastic, or mean. I crossed the carpet and sat down next to Gazzy. He looked at me suspiciously. I gave him my most convincing smile, and he relaxed a bit.

"Glad you're feeling better, because Dr. Martinez and I made lunch," Iggy said, coming into the kitchen with a steaming plate of… tacos? Yes, he and my mother made tacos. Yum.

"Lunch?" I asked, looking for the wall clock, "What time is it?"

"Almost four thirty. You slept like a rock all morning. And yesterday too. And the day before that, and--"

"Okay, I get it." I said, taking a soft taco from the top of the platter. There had to be over two dozen tacos on the plate! I almost felt bad, realizing that my mom and Jeb might actually not get more than one taco because A: the flock eats like they have nine stomachs each, and B: I felt like I had nineteen empty stomachs. The taco was delicious! Leave it to Iggy and my mom to make the best damn Mexican food on the planet.

I was up to my third taco when Jeb dropped the bomb.

"So, now that Max is back with us, I was thinking that you guys should go to school. For real this time." I nearly coughed up my taco. If I had a nickel for every time someone wanted us to enroll in school…

"Oh, that would be so great! Can we do it Max, please? I know how much you hate school, but it would be so much better than the home-schooling you tried to make us do. I mean, no offense. It was an okay idea, but it pretty much went downhill from day one. Don't you remember how great school was back in Virginia? Well, besides the whole crazy teachers trying to catch us thing, and the Anne thing, and the whole relationship issue this… But this could be different! As long as we don't have to wear any stupid uniforms again, and--"

"Nudge! Please! Let me think," I said, trying my best to sound like I wasn't about to say no. Actually, I wasn't. I was really considering it. Nothing was really holding us back. I was about to look up to Fang, when I realized that he wasn't even there. No Fang. No right hand man I could look to when I needed another opinion. I could have asked Dylan… ha-ha, yeah right! I could have asked Iggy, but we didn't have the connection, the bond that Fang and I shared. Maybe school would take my mind off of him-- off of everything. School had never worked out for us before. Then again, nothing really had worked out for us period. What the hell. It would make the others happy. I saw happiness glow in Angel, who was obviously reading my mind, but clearly didn't want to spoil the surprise for the others.

"Yeah," I said finally. "What would it hurt if we gave school one more shot?" I could think of a lot of things at that moment.

I was overwhelmed by a roar of cheers, especially from Nudge.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Nudge said, squeezing me until I couldn't breathe. It warmed my heart to see the five ecstatic faces from the flock, and the one utterly surprised expression from Jeb. I shrugged with one shoulder at him. He obviously wasn't expecting that answer from me. I bet he even planned out an entire argument in his head.

"Okay, Jeb. What school did you have in mind?" This was the dreaded question I was afraid to ask.

Jeb hesitated for a moment. As if he was carefully choosing his words. "The Day and Night School. In Utah. You know the one."

I had known it. We were suppose to go there a while back, but ended up not. I was too focused on finding my mom who was, at the time, kidnapped by the evil Mr. Chu, and kept in an underwater layer. We had to go through a whole military training coarse just to get on a special submarine to rescue her. Yeah, like we could have fit school into _that_ schedule.

I agreed to school without argue. Okay, with little argue. All I'm saying is that we should be allowed to fly during recess!

The next Monday morning, we headed off to school with all new supplies, backpacks, clothes, and no uniforms. We boarded the privet jet that would take us to Utah. It was no different than any other privet jet we've been on. Not that we've been on many. The ride wasn't that long. We arrived in no time. The Day and Night school looked exactly the same. Dusty pastel colors to make the outside walls blend in with the endless surrounded desert. Ms. Hamilton, my mom's old college classmate, waiting at the door with a clipboard in hand. I almost got a sense of déjà vu with everything the same. It should have been almost normal, going back to school.

But of coarse, nothing was as expected with us. Everything pretty much went downhill as we walked through the front doors.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the reviews (or at least, thanks to Claire Ride for her review, a.k.a my first one!) Anyway, back to the story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride! Sorry.**

Max POV

"We would send you straight to class, but given the fact that you haven't been here in a while, you're going to have to take the placement test again," Ms. Hamilton said, walking us down the main hallway. She took us to the same empty classroom where we took the test the first time. I then remembered why I hated school. We were street-smart, not book-smart. The math portion of the test dragged me down. I saw Angel zip through it from the corner of my eye. Gazzy was having trouble. Nudge was hardly paying attention. Iggy was in another room, taking an oral exam. Dylan was intensely focused. I didn't think he had any schooling. Maybe I was wrong.

_If x + 4(5) = 27, what is x - 2?_

What? I didn't even know what that meant. X is a letter, right? How can I solve a math equation using a _letter_? Math just confused me. Thank God it was multiple choice. Any answer is better than no answer. As if I cared if I got it right.

Four hours later. Our results barely changed since the last time we were tested. Angel and Dylan scored the highest. You wouldn't believe the brain capacity that boy has! If he weren't a mutant freak with wings, he would've be in college at the age of nine. Being in the military for a short period of time did something for my history, but my math and reading still sucked. Again, we all had great memorization skills.

So, what classes were we all put in? Not the same one, I assure you. Angel and Dylan were placed in the high algebra class, the honor's English class, the high history class, and all the other top classes you could get into. The rest of us weren't that lucky (or smart). Iggy and I got into the low math class, regular English, regular history, regular science, and regular or low… everything else. Nudge was in my math and science class, but she got into the higher English class and the lower history class. Gazzy was in my English and history class, but got into the regular math class and the honor's science class. Total… well, Total was a mystery when it came to school. I don't even know how he got into the classes he did.

Anybody who can keep up with all of this, send me a chart that can help me keep up with all of this.

Of coarse, what would school be without P.E., computers, and health class? There was only one computers and health class. I knew we all would ace computers with no difficulty whatsoever, but health was going to be a challenge. We never gave any thought about health. If something was broken, we would suck it up and move on. If one of us was sick, which rarely ever happened, we would do the same thing. Why did we even need to know about our health? I had no clue. As for physical education, they made a whole new gym class just for us! Good thing, too. I doubt anyone else would be able to keep up with us. Just thinking about it made me grin.

Day one, week one, period one. I had math with Iggy and Nudge. I was twitchy about the idea of not being able to keep an eye on the rest of my flock. Our teacher was an old bald man, squinty grey eyes, about five foot twelve, and could loose a couple extra pounds. He wore a pale beige strped button up shirt, black work pants, and black leather shoes. Not a bad teacher's get up. At least I knew he wasn't going to try to attack me.

He introduced himself as Mr. Kaden. Since the year already started, we had to catch up with the rest of the class. They were learning long division. Okay, I know I'm not great at math, but I knew some! Sticking us in a class with these idiots was just insulting, especially at our age! I mean, long division? Really? Even Total knew long division! And he's a _dog_! A mutant talking dog with wings, but still. It was too easy. I wondered how the rest of my flock were doing.

Angel POV

I sat in the very middle of the very first row in the classroom. Dylan sat to my right. Just like the rest of the flock, I had math first. Or should I say, Algebra 1. I grinned, waiting for my teacher. I wasn't sure if anyone else knew this, but I really enjoyed math. I liked school in general, but math was my best subject when we went to school back in Virginia. If you're thinking I cheated on the placement test by reading the teacher's mind, you're wrong. I tried my best not to read anyone's mind during the test. Honest.

The teacher walked in, holding a teacher's text book and a blue reusable bag over her shoulder. She looked very young for a teacher. She had strawberry blonde hair with bright highlights, curled at the bottom. She wore a light purple sweater, a darker purple skirt that landed just below her knees, and silver heeled sandals. Her name was Ms. Everheart. Her mind was like an office building, always thinking about work, planning what to do.

_This afternoon I still have to pick up the paperwork from yesterday, and then I have to grade the quizzes and make up tomorrow's worksheets and…_

It was tiring just listening to her. But at least she was focused on school and not personal things like her boyfriend or her next trip to the mall.

"Good morning class," Ms. Everheart began, "I see we have some new students today. Would you to like to stand and tell the class your names?"

Oh no. She was one of _those_ teachers. The kind that make you stand in front of the entire class and say something about yourself. Not that I minded that, but Dylan did.

I stood, with Dylan at my side. All eyes were on us. That's not something we get use to.

"Would you like to go first sweetie?" She said in a high pitched voice, looking down at me. Should I give my real name? I bet Jeb had already written our real names in their records. Maybe I should ask Max really quickly.

_Max, the teacher wants my name. Should I fake it?_

A few seconds of silence. I probably looked like an idiot.

_Yeah go ahead. They already have our real names in their files in the office._

I knew it.

"Um, my name is Angel. I'm seven years old." I said, sounding completely not like a seven year old. I looked up at Dylan expectantly.

"How about you? What's your name?" Ms. Everheart said, with her eyebrows raised.

He hesitated a moment. "Dylan." Short, sweet, and to the point. That's why I liked Dylan. He made things simple. Ms. Everheart waited, as if he would say more. But he didn't.

" All right," she said, "take your seats. Class is about to begin."

Gasman's POV

Math, jeez. Did we need to know math? Could you use math to make explosives? I thought so. Iggy would've known, but he wasn't in my class. Nobody in the flock was, besides Total. For once, Total wasn't talking. He was probably waiting for the rest of the class to come before he started chatting. Smart dog, always trying to be funny.

Ms. Hamilton was our math teacher. She taught most of the regular ranked classes.

She was sorting some papers on her desk when a scrawny kid came running into the room.

"I'm here… I'm here…" he said in between pants. His backpack was half open, his shoes were muddy, and he looked like he's been chased by Erasers.

"Manny, why are you so late?" Ms. Hamilton asked.

Manny held up a finger: one sec. he put his hands on his knees and tried to steady his breathing.

"I accidentally slept in, then I fell down the stairs on the way out of my dorm," Manny started. It was totally believable, for a start. "I ran over here as fast as I could when some idiot on a bicycle almost ran me over and knocked all of my books and papers out of my bag." That's when his story started to sink.

Ms. Hamilton didn't smile, or frown. She remained completely unreadable. "Very credible story. There's just a few errors. First, I know for a fact that your dorm room is on the first floor, so there is no way you could have fallen down any stairs on your way out." Strike one. "Second, we are in the middle of the dessert in Utah, and every other student and teacher is already in class. No one would be cycling through this area." Strike two. "Third, you couldn't have dropped your books because you don't have a backpack on you. I watched you put it in your locker on Friday because you had no homework." Strike three, you're out! Manny got detention, and class started, about ten minutes behind schedule.

Max POV

First period was a drag. Yes, we outshone the rest of the class when they found out we already knew long division, but it just got so boring! It should've been fun to feel smarter than the rest of the class, but when the teacher made us do it over and over, in word problems, side to side, up and down, then backwards, it becomes too much. I decided I didn't like Mr. Kaden very much.

Second period, science, was just as horrible as first period, more or less. I'll spare you the gross details of dissection. Health class was next. Ugh! Then history. Lucky for me, we were learning American history. The amount of American history I knew was about as many secrets Angel didn't know about. Yes, it was sad. Lunch was next.

THANK YOU GOD!!!!!

I was starving. Lunch was held in a huge cafeteria filled with loud, semi-normal or above average kids, and a large king sized salad bar. Next to the salad bar was a self-serve sub station. I had a feeling that both bars would be cleaned out by the end of the period. When I saw Nudge drooling with hunger, I started toward the salad bar. Then the sub station. People were actually gawking at the two foot long sub sandwiches filled with three types of meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. It was hilarious.

We finished just in time to go back for seconds, but as we got up, someone blocked my way. It was the lunch aid.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to eat anymore. We can't be wasteful with food out here." she said.

"Excuse me," I said with just a little too many manners. "We're new, you probably haven't gotten use to us yet. We all are very, very big eaters, and we didn't get a very, very big breakfast. So, if you'll excuse us--" I nearly pushed her to the ground. We made our way back to the salad and sub stations and got more food.

On our way back to our seats, I could hear people murmuring about us.

"Those kids are pigs…why don't they save some for the rest of us?… how can a seven year old digest so much… I knew those kids were freaks…"

It was getting on my nerves. But I knew that if I broke anything, or anyone, I would hear it later from Jeb. I sighed, and continued eating.

Recess was next period, and that's where the fun began.

* * *

**Sorry for such a long chapter. I wanted to make it really good, and get all the info I could in there. Review PLEASE!!!!! **


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is really exciting, so hang on to your seat! Ha-ha. Anyway.. Back to the story. Please read and review, and enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.**

Max POV

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! SOMEBODY HELP HER!!!!!!"

It was recess period. There were less than three hundred kids in the school, and the backyard of the school was huge. The school paved one big chunk of area to use as the basketball courts, next to that were three jungle gyms and four swing sets built into the sand. The scream came from a small girl in a pink sundress. Her brown pick tails bounced around as she looked this way and that, screaming bloody murder. Since the only aid was a fifty year old woman half asleep on the bench next to the playground, I took the liberty of shutting her up. I spun her around and cupped my left hand over her mouth as I crouched down to her level. She was no less than nine years old.

"What are you screaming about?" I asked in a soft yet demanding voice.

She was hyperventilating as she turned toward the building and pointed to a dark figure standing on the edge of the two story school. My raptor vision allowed me to focus on the face.

It was Nudge!

"Hey Max!" Nudge screamed, waving at me, "check it out! The view is great from up here!"

A crowd was starting to form around me. Kids were pointing and squinting, trying to see what she was doing. I laughed and their faces. I saw Angel come down from a jungle gym and race towards me to see what was happening. Then Iggy and Gazzy came from a swing set. Dylan just watched from the top of a basketball hoop (I didn't even want to know how he managed to get up there). Total trotted up into Angel's arms. He looked at me, then looked at Nudge, and smiled while chuckling.

"Hey Nudge!" I screamed back. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to jump! Duh!"

This started a commotion. Kids started screaming, running, calling for the principal (as if _that_ would help) They were all so naïve. With all the noise, I couldn't hear myself think.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled over everyone. Once they all quieted down, I started again, "How on earth am I suppose to respond to her if you people won't be quiet?" I was really raising my voice now.

"Just tell her to get down from there!" someone said. I recognized the kid from my science class. He was one of those sensible kids who sucked up to teachers. I decided to make this the most interesting day of their school year.

"All right," I said to the kid. "Hey Nudge! Go for it! And hurry up! We haven't got all day!" Well, he told me to get her down, and down she will go.

If you've ever seen a panicky crowd, that was only one third of the chaos that arose throughout the playground. I swear I saw one kid dialing 911.

"Are you absolutely insane???" Screamed the kid, whose name I still hadn't cared enough to figure out. I laughed in his face.

"Nudge! After you jump, promise I get to go next!" I was really enjoying this. Hey, they had to find out our little secret sooner or later. Better if it was before gym class. I saw adults starting to pour out of the building. I hoped Nudge was waiting for a worthy audience for this.

"What is going on?" Mr. Kaden asked me, with a boatload of teachers and assistants behind him.

"Oh, my sister's going to jump off the top of the school," I said, all too casually. "Then I'm going next!" His face was turning red, then an odd color of purple. He started to give instructions to some aids as other teachers ran back into the school.

"Nudge! JUMP ALREADY!" My grin widened as she backed up then threw herself off the edge. Everyone but us six backed up, hoping to get out of the way.

Nudge freefell for a bit, then unfurled her long, gorgeous wings, and she swooped up right over the screaming crowd. I cheered and clapped, and the rest of the flock joined in.

"What the hell was that?" Someone from the crowd yelled, coming forward towards us.

"Nudge jumped off the building, then started flying," Gasman said casually, as if it should be obvious. "I was scared she was going to land right there, but then she pulled that swoop! That was awesome!"

The kid was taken back. He looked as if everything Gazzy said was in gibberish.

"So, she has wings?" The kid said hesitantly.

"Noooooooo. She used her arms to flap and magically hovered in the air." I said over sarcastically. "Of coarse she has wings!"

Without another word, I spread my thirteen foot long wings, and flew up to the roof. It didn't take me long to realize that Angel, Gasman, and Iggy were behind me. I spotted Nudge on the ground, being surrounded by her worried friends and classmates.

"Nudge!" Angel screamed, "Check this out!"

We fell off the roof one by one, then flew up into the air in a diamond formation. Then I did something really crazy. I folded in my wings and freefell for about twenty feet, right above a large pool of students.

NI spread my wings just as I gracefully landed in front of Nudge. It felt really good to spread my wings out like that. Nudge came up right to me.

"Max! That was awesome! So much fun! Did you see the look on everyone's face when you dive bombed? That was so funny!" I realized Nudge still had her wings out too. I brushed some sand off her wing, then I motioned for us to go restart the teachers' hearts.

"Ms. Ride. I demand an explanation! Just because you have an advantage over the other students does not mean you can go and out them all in danger like that--" I stopped Ms. Hamilton before she really started to aggravate me.

"Please. We did not put anyone in danger! We were told we are allowed to fly during recess, and we did. Nobody got hurt, so why are we in trouble?"

Her jaw set. I'd never seen Ms. Hamilton so angry. "Don't start flying unless you give everyone else some sort of warning. Not everyone hear can handle such a surprise like that."

I said okay, then the bell rang. Time for our next class. Yippee.

On the way back inside, I asked Nudge why she waited so long to jump off the school.

"I was waiting for the teachers to come out. I mean, why not let the entire school know at once? It seemed like a good plan, but it turned out so much better! That was almost better than the time we were in New York and we went to that ultra fancy restaurant for Gazzy, and they wouldn't give us our orders so we flew out of there. Man that was so good! I love surprising people."

"Well, I don't think anyone will be sleeping through the next class." I said with a small laugh.

That afternoon, we were brought to our dorm rooms for the first time.

"No, I won't have it!" I was practically shouting at the woman at the front desk. Apparently you had to go to the main office to get your room numbers. "We have to have two rooms. One for the girls, one for the boys. That's how it's always been with us."

"I- I'm sorry. I have it set into my computer that you each share a different room with one or two roommates."

"Well, change it. We will not be separated." I said, slamming my fist on the table. Even though I seemed pretty mad and scary, neither Nudge nor Gazzy flinched next to me. They knew that I was only doing that to put the poor old woman on the spot, and they've seen me do this a million times. The rest of the flock were gathering all our stuff that was put into the rooms they wanted us in because they all knew I wasn't coming out of there without the answer I wanted. I was never one to lose an argument.

The woman typed something into her computer, then looked back at us.

"All right. I have two vacant rooms for you six-"

"Seven." Gazzy said, interrupting her.

"Excuse me? I thought there were only six of you."

"No, there's seven, including Total."

"Total?"

"Total's our dog," I assured her, "but please don't give him a doggy bed or anything like that. He likes to sleep on beds."

The woman raised her eyebrows and let out a long, irritated breath as she typed more information into her computer.

"You are in building four. Girls in room number eleven, boys in room number two." She said in a tight, all-business way.

I smiled sweetly, "Thank you."

"So, what did you think of your new teachers?" I asked Nudge and Gazzy on our way back to our dorm building.

"They were great! They all were really nice, especially Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Everheart." Nudge said excitedly.

"I had Ms. Hamilton for math. She's clever. This one kid was really late and gave this bogus cover story, and Ms. Hamilton found every lie in his story. It was so cool! But never be late for her class, let me warn you." Gazzy said.

I was really glad that they had a good first day. But inside, I was slowly shutting down again because I still missed Fang. I missed him so much. If he only were there with me.

"Max!" I realized that Nudge had been saying my name repeatedly now. "Max!"

"Oh, sorry, what?"

"How did your first day go?"

"Um… I don't really like Mr. Kaden. Every one else is alright."

"I didn't really like Mr. Kaden either. He was too uptight. I see why you must not like him."

"Maybe he'll grow on me."

We broke out into laughter.

As we walked into the building, I took careful notice of the place. I looked for all the exits and places to run. It was pretty big on the inside, I had to admit. There was a dining hall, a living room with chairs and couches, and two staircases each going up from either the left or the right side of the living room. I realized that there were a bunch of other kids in the building, most of them were watching large flat screen TVs in the living room. The news was on.

_And coming up, a fifteen year old boy was charged with theft, harassment, and grand theft auto. This boy, who goes by the name Nick Ride, had broke a man's nose and arm then drove away in his car, along with all the stolen food he could stuff in his pockets. We will have more on the story when we return._

I froze in shock.

"Max, are you okay?" Gazzy asked me. But he sounded like he was much farther away than he really was. The name from the news report kept crawling back into my mind.

_Nick Ride_…

Fang.

**Please review and tell me what you think!**

**I'm sorry to all you Dylan lovers, but I just had to put Fang in there!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks so much for all your reviews! Especially you "Taco"! Now back to the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride (but I wish I did).**

Max POV

"Gazzy, Nudge, get the others. Now. Meet up back here. Allay bandada bezheet." I said with urgency, using the secret language we used back at the School. They immediately understood and ran in different directions. I headed out the door and back to the main office and the stupid receptionist.

I ran through the glass door, nearly knocking another student over. Before the woman could get out her "Yes may I help you?" I chocked out between pants, "I need to use your phone, now." It wasn't as demanding as I wanted it to be, but it did sound urgent.

She hesitated a bit, then showed me to a room behind her that had a copy machine, a couple printers, a fax machine, and a phone. I dialed the number I was forced to memorize incase anything went wrong.

Jeb picked up on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Jeb! Call my mom, I don't care where you are, just call her and both of you turn on channel 10 news. It's an emergency."

"Max calm down. What's so important?"

"Just turn the news on and see for yourself."

I hung up without another word. Hopefully he listens to me, for once. I ran out, said thank you to the receptionist, then ran back to the dorm building as fast as I could manage.

Oh god, oh god, oh god. Fang! I couldn't believe we had actually found him! And on TV too! We could know exactly where he is and how long he could be there for in a matter of seconds. I only wondered why he would so easily allow himself to be on public television when he was running away from us. Of coarse he knew that we would go to him if we got the slightest hint of where he was…

I found my entire flock, even Total, in the living room of the girl's dorm.

"Max, what is going on?" Iggy said with a demanding, almost irritated voice. I heard the news tune go on, and I waved everyone towards the TV.

_Back to our top story tonight. A fifteen year old boy who goes by the name Nick Ride has been charged with grand theft auto, thievery, and harassment. _

Nudge gasped next to me and cupped her mouth with her hand. Her eyes slowly went wide and filled with sadness, and a couple tears. Nick Ride had been the fake name I'd given him when he had to go to the hospital after our first encounter with the failed flying Erasers. Why would he use a name we knew him by? Sometimes Fang was just confusing. It was like he wanted us to find him.

_He was seen by several bystanders casually walking out of a local mini-mart with his jacket literally stuffed with any portable unpaid food he could carry. When local resident Mathew Soapy tried to stop Nick in the parking lot, Nick assaulted Mathew, fracturing his collarbone and braking his nose and arm. Every one of the witnesses commented that Nick was professionally trained. _

"Typical Fang," Iggy muttered. I shushed him and glued my attention back to the news report. I noticed that many other students from the dorm were gathering around to listen in.

_Nick stole the closest unlocked car he could find and drove away, only to be stopped by the police ten minutes afterwards._

As the reporter was saying this, a video played of Fang sloppily driving and being pulled over, the food falling from his windbreaker as he opened the door. He was never that great of a driver. Neither of us were, given the fact that we're only fourteen and never had driving lessons. Heck, Iggy was probably a better driver than we were. As the cop pulled Fang out of the car and hand cuffed him, we got a really good view of his face. He looked straight into the camera, showing every detail of his face: his dark eyes, his equally dark hair still growing longer, a scar from a recent accident (that story ought to be good). It was as if he were screaming into the camera "Hey flock! I'm right here!"

I gasped in realization. Of coarse! He _did_ want us to find him! Why else would he throw himself out in public like that using a name we knew? All the pieces slowly fit together in my mind: the illegal stunt that would get him on TV, the way he used the familiar fake name, the way he stared straight into the camera…

Angel gasped behind me, reading my mind and understanding also.

"But Max," Angel said, loud enough for the rest of the flock to hear, "it doesn't make sense. Why would he run away just for us to find him?"

"He knows something. Something we don't know about, aren't suppose to know about. I think he's warning us of something. I think he wants us to go to him." I said without turning from the TV.

"How do you know that?" Angel asked.

"Just one of my famous gut feelings."

"Who is that?" a girl whom I didn't recognize asked us. "Do you guys know him?"

"His name is Fang, and we sure as hell know him." I said while getting up off the couch.

_Nick will be held in court this Thursday in Arizona. In other news, a possible suspect for the Hay murder was found…"_

I stopped listening at that point. Arizona! That's so close, we could make it there in no time! It was presently Tuesday. If we left right away, we could fly there and arrive pumped up and ready with a plan.

"All right guys, let's pack up some stuff and start heading to Arizona--"

"Oh, no you're not," A very familiar irritated voice cut me off. I turned to see Ms. Hamilton at the doorway of the living room. This chick was really starting to get on my nerves. "You're not going anywhere. You seven are to stay here. You've only been here for two days, and you already want to leave?"

"We have to," Angel said, coming next to me and taking my hand, "Fang is a part of our flock, and we refuse to pass up an opportunity to get him back."

I was so proud of her. Despite how things have changed between us in the past, I felt closer than ever to her.

"I understand why you feel the need to go to him, but if _he _left _you_, why on earth would you believe he wants to come back?" She said, her jaw tensing with every word she spat out. Overwhelming rage took over me.

"Look," I said in my scariest voice, "I don't care what _you_ think. But _we_ know Fang better than anyone on this whole damn planet. And _we_ are going to find him whether _you_ like it or not."

"I'm sorry but I don't believe this is your choice." She spat.

"And I believe it is." I said, raising my voice and pushing through her, the flock following at my heels.

"Max, if you leave, how do we know you'll come back?" Ms. Hamilton asked while we were just stepping outside. I turned around to face her.

"When you see us land in front of the school with one more flock member." I said to her, making sure everyone could hear me.

"So we are coming back this time?" Nudge asked me softly.

"I gave Jeb my word. It's a promise I kind of have to keep, even if Fang objects to it."

"Which he probably will." Nudge finished for me.

We packed some clothes, food, and other supplies we would need in individual backpacks. As I was packing my second tank top into my pack, I heard a knock at the door. I looked over at Nudge and Angel. They shrugged.

"Nobody I know," Angel mouthed silently.

I looked through the peephole on our door to see a girl my age with dark brown hair streaked with red, black eyeliner, black clothing, and a medium sized box in her hands. I didn't want to open the door at first, but I figured what harm could she cause me? I alone could easily make mincemeat out of her. I opened the door, and the girl smiled.

"Hi, um, I'm Silica. You're Max, right?" she said.

"Yeah. Um, can I… help you?" I asked, kind of confused.

Silica smiled sheepishly and looked down at the small blue box in her hands.

"I heard about your missing friend in the living room." She said.

"Oh he wasn't missing he just… um…"

"It's okay. I could tell how you must feel about him. I came here to help you."

I hesitated a bit, my eyebrows pushing together. What did she mean she knew how I felt? Was she a mind reader or something like Angel? Was she clairvoyant? How could any of them possibly know how much we care about him?

"How do you think I feel about Fang?"

Silica looked deep into my brown eyes, and I glared right back into her golden hazel eyes. Like she was looking for something, and the answer could be found by staring me down.

"You all love him. A lot. You especially, Max. He's the earth and heaven to you. You feel alone, empty, lost, confused without him. He probably loved you back just as much, if not more. He probably didn't tell you he was leaving in person. I bet he left a note or something. Tell me, how many days did you cry when he left?" She said without removing her eyes from mine. I blinked a couple times, my mouth hanging open.

"How-- what-- are you, like, psychic or something?"

"No. I could tell by the way you looked at his image on the TV," Silica said, finally taking her eyes away, but now looking down, "I had that same look on my face when my soul mate left."

I then realized, if anyone outside my family would know how I felt, it was Silica. If she could figure all that out just by a look on my face, then her situation couldn't have been much different than mine (in a general sense, I mean). I led her inside, and sat her down on my bed where my bag still laid only halfway packed.

"You're lucky, though," Silica said, "you can at least go to the one you love, see him again. I can't."

"Why not?" Nudge asked, talking for the first time in Silica's presence. I was shocked that she kept quiet all this time. "I mean, he has to be somewhere on this planet. There are a lot of ways to track people down. Ooh! Maybe we can help you look for him! I'm amazing at hacking into computers. There has to be some file on him. He couldn't have just dropped off the face of the earth."

"That's just the thing. You can't track Damon down. He's dead." Silica said, her voice cracking on the last word.

Angel gasped. "Oh, that's horrible! I'm so sorry!"

"Thanks. But I didn't come here to talk about my old boring life." Silica said, putting on an all business expression. I decided I liked her. She knew when to talk about feelings and when to get down to business, and she really knew how to stare a person to death. "Tell me more about this Fang. I only know his name and already he sounds interesting."

I laughed, which was very rare in the past few weeks. This girl obviously knew people well.

"Well, Fang has a very impressive wardrobe, and he plays a mean harmonica. But let me just say he is _not_ goth. He just likes dark clothing. And his hair is naturally black like that." I said. Talking about Fang made me miss him more, and made me eager to get out of there and go to him already!

"Okay, so that's what he's like on the outside, but what's he like on the inside? What's his personality?" Silica said with lots of interest.

"He's the silent and strong type." All three of us said at almost the exact same time. I smiled.

"You have to really know him for a while before you get him to laugh, let alone grin." I remembered seeing Fang grin, his beautiful smile that stopped my heart and made my world go round.

"Okay, and what are the rest of you like? Sorry if I'm being pushy, but I know it's your first day and I haven't gotten the chance to really know to you. I usually introduce all the new kids to, well, the rest of the school." Silica said. For a person who looked like the princess of darkness, she was really high-spirited and friendly. Then I let her words sink in. She didn't know us that well? Hadn't she seen our little episode at recess?

"Um, when did you come in for school today?" I asked, choosing my words carefully.

"Oh, just after sixth period. I had some… important business to take care of." Silica said suspiciously, but I let it slide. Sixth period was after recess.

"Okay. You need to see this." I said, waving Nudge and Angel out of the way, warning them to make room.

"What are you--" Silica said, but she gasped and cut herself off as I spread my wings, wide and beautiful. I usually didn't do this for many people, but Silica came here to help us, and she could help us again in the future, so she needed to know the basics.

"Oh my god--" She nearly screamed. I tucked my wings in and covered her mouth before anyone heard her and came in to investigate.

Silica looked at me with intensity. "Tell me everything."

So I did, well, almost everything. I started with when and why Fang left us, then went on until she knocked on our door. I even included that we were genetically enhanced, had to have over 3000 calories a day, usually went dumpster diving when we got hungry, and occasionally stole a car when it was completely necessary, which all explained why the things he did on TV were norm for him. But we just never did them so publicly.

"So, now that you know everything, I need to know something," I said when I finally finished. "What's in that pretty little box of yours?"

"I knew that he was being charged and was no doubt going to jail. So, I brought something that might help that little dilemma." She said, lifting the cover of the dark blue box.

What the box contained honestly shocked Nudge, Angel, and myself, which is saying something.

**Please review, and no suggestions to what was in the box are needed. I already had that planned out in my head. ; )**

**Thank you to all my readers, and spread the word about this story! It's going to get really good really fast!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Did you know that if you take the first initials of Iggy, Max, Fang, Angel, Nudge, and Gasman, it spells I'M FANG? Ha-ha. I found it funny.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.**

Max POV

Silica opened the blue box, which contained… a book. A dirty, brown, really, really old book. How would this help us? I had no clue.

"This is a law book," Silica said, lifting it out of the box. "My dad is a lawyer, and my mom's a cop, so we have tons of these things back at home. My family's always been strict with laws, and the laws Fang broke are some of the most common."

"Okay, so, we can use this book to…" I said, urging her to get to the point.

"We can find a loophole. Some way to convince the jury that Fang is innocent." Nudge said, finishing for me.

"That's a good plan," Angel started, "but there's one problem. Fang isn't innocent."

The more I thought about it, the more I realized she was right. Fang was only fifteen, and he robbed a store, a car, and beat up some random guy. There was no way he could _not_ go to jail. He was just another juvenile kid to the jury… or so they thought. How could I have forgotten? He's a bird kid! He didn't apply to regular laws. He stole food because he was starving (considering his diet), he harassed the man because he was using self defense, thinking he was someone after him trying to bring him back to the School or something, and he stole the car because he was just trying to get away from the person he thought was trying to capture him. Practically most of the world already knew about us, what would one courtroom full of people harm if they saw his wings? Wow, I just figured out Fang's testimony all in my head. Sweet!

"Hey guys," I said. I explained everything I had just figured out, and got backup law information from Silica's book. Nudge and Angel thought it was genius.

"Alright, well, we need to go right now. Lets go see if the boys are ready then it's up and away." I said, finally finished packing my bag.

Once we were all ready to go, we all gathered outside, including Silica, and I told them the plan.

We said goodbye to Silica as she wished us luck and gave us her phone number, waved to Ms. Hamilton as she stubbornly told us how much trouble we were in with Jeb, and took off. If only she knew that I called Jeb and told him what we were doing while Angel and Nudge were finding the boys. Jeb was totally okay with our plan! He wanted Fang back with us too.

We took off and headed south, to Arizona.

Once we crossed the border, we stopped at a café to eat and check to channel 10 news website on Fang's old laptop. We needed to know exactly where we were going and how to get there, and the only source we had was the website. The one webpage had a whole lot more information on the story than the reporter did on the TV! We found the name and address of the courthouse Fang will be held in, then tried to find somewhere to sleep, since the trip took a lot shorter than I thought. We lounged in some trees, safe, cozy and warm, and drifted into sleep.

Except for me.

I was either a: too eager to finally find Fang after all those miserable days of depression, b: too curious why Fang had us go to him instead of him tracking us down, which he could have very easily done, or c: still too hyper from the three cappuccinos I had.

Or it was somewhere in between all three. Either way, I couldn't sleep. I remembered all those alone moments with Fang. The time in the New York subway tunnels, when we met that weird computer geek; when we were at Anne's house and we were fighting; when we had our first kiss; our second kiss; the time we were in the dessert after our first attempt at the Day and Night school, and we kissed on the beach. I remembered that moment most. It was the first time we kissed and I accepted it, didn't run away like the last couple of times. That had to be the one of the best moments ever, until I got home to find out my mother had been kidnapped. That killed the mood.

I woke up to a very bright sun, not realizing I actually fell asleep. I looked around finding my flock… missing. They weren't in the trees! I dropped to the ground, not even a campfire. I screamed their names. "Angel! Gasman! Nudge! Iggy! Dylan! Total?" None of them responded. I began to panic. No, no, _no! _How could I have lost the flock? Had they been kidnapped? Was this another "test" controlled by white coats at the School? My heart automatically restarted as I heard the small voice.

"Max! Max! Over here!" It was Iggy!

I ran towards his voice, running deeper into the woods, almost tripping over a giant bush.

"Iggy!" I shouted in between pants, "What's going on over here? Where are the others?"

"Max, it's okay. We all woke up because we thought someone was coming, so we hid in here. It turned out to be just a couple of hikers. We made camp over there." Iggy pointed toward a huge tree surrounded by bushes, all brightened by something behind it which I could only guess was their fire. I sighed in relief.

"Why didn't anyone think of waking _me_ up?" I asked Iggy.

"You were snoozing the morning away. We tried to wake you, but we would have had to put a bullhorn to your ear to wake you up. We couldn't risk letting the campers discover us, since they were both looking up in all the trees trying to find this rare bird. They would have found one rare bird if we stuck around." I nodded, encouraging him to continue, only half believing his story.

"Once the idiot campers were at least ten yards away, we climbed out of the trees and hid before they came back in our direction, which they did. You were so high in the tree and hidden within the leaves that there was no way they would have seen you, which they didn't. They made there own camp about one and a half miles away. It was almost dawn, so we thought you would wake up soon. We didn't know you were _that_ out of it."

I mumbled something like "okay" and climbed over the bushes, ignoring the thorns that scraped my ankles.

I saw my flock sitting around the campfire, roasting random foods on sticks. Everyone was wide awake, even Nudge and Gazzy, who were always grumpy right after they woke up. I looked up, finding the sun pretty close to the highest point in the sky. Which meant it was almost noon. _Noon!_ And we were suppose to be finding Fang!

"Okay guys, we have to pack up and keep going. Fang's testimony is at one o'clock, and we still have to find this place. Let's move!"

It was going to take us about forty-five minutes to fly to the courthouse, and who knows how long it would take to come up with a plan. So we took off, kicked it into high gear, and began forming a plan.

The building was surrounded by cars and had an all-business aura to it. We walked right in, being stopped by many security guards, who "decided" to let us go after Angel had a good, short chat with them. I reminded her not to control minds when we entered the court room. The last thing we needed was for _her_ to get sued too.

We walked swiftly through the many hallways, being guided by Gazzy, who had the laptop which displayed a virtual map of the building, and Angel, who had the mind reading ability. We circled the building a couple times, getting lost and taking alternative routes. Then, right after the clock struck one, we found the courtroom. I put my ear to the door, trying to make out what the Judge was saying.

"Mr. Ride, are you represented by an attorney?" she asked. I didn't need Silica's law book to know what that meant. My jaw set, and I swung the double doors open and marched right in there, all eyes turning to me.

Including Fang's.

"Yes he does, and she's right here." I said, leading them inside. I motioned for them to sit down in the second row. The Judge, and the guy Fang beat up (what was his name? Something Soapy? Poor sap) were taken aback.

"Max," Fang whispered, a big grin creeping onto his face, "I can't believe you're here."

I pulled him into a tight hug, fighting back a tear and never wanting to let him go. But I was standing in front of a judge and a jury, so I had to.

"Your honor," I said with my sweetest, most convincing smile, "I believe there has been some kind of misunderstanding. You see, Fa-- I mean, um, Nick here is completely innocent of all charges."

"OBJECTION!" Soapy interrupted. I looked at him with my eyebrows raised and a death glare in my eyes. "Your honor, this boy is about as innocent as it is possible for him to grow wings and fly!"

I laughed, along with Fang and the rest of the flock. I swear I thought Nudge was going to fall over clutching her stomach.

I only stopped when the Judge banged her gavel saying "Order! Order in the court! Miss, you better have a good explanation why you chose this time to start laughing. I assure you the situation Mr. Ride is in is not funny."

"I apologize, your honor, but you see, what Mr.… Soapy is it? What Mr. Soapy had said is so true that it _is_ funny. For Mr. Ride can, in fact, grow wings and fly. There for, he is innocent."

It was the jury who laughed this time. I scowled at them.

"Your honor, if you don't mind, I would like to call Nick Ride to the stand." I said, my voice tight and professional.

I could feel Fang looking at me, giving me a look that openly said _What the hell are you doing?_ I honestly didn't know what I was doing. If I was doing anything, it would be either following my gut, or saving Fang's butt from prison. Fang took a seat at the stand, and the questioning began.

But before I did that, I wanted to make sure Fang didn't screw up.

_Angel, tell Fang through his mind what I told you yesterday in the dorm room. You know the plan._

I glanced at her for a millisecond, and saw her slightly nod. Luckily, while we were making our way through the building, Angel and I were creating a plan through our thoughts. I felt bad about not letting the others in on it, but if we discussed it aloud, the security cameras would have picked up on it.

"Mr. Ride," I began, "is it true that you stole grocery items from a small food store?"

I waited about twenty seconds, knowing that Angel was explaining to Fang what to say. I thought I saw Fang smile slightly, but it was gone faster than it came.

"I stole the food because I was hungry, starving even, and I didn't have any money." He said, almost too smoothly.

"Can you please explain why you were so hungry?"

Another ten seconds went by.

"I hardly ate anything in the two days before the incident. I have a very big appetite. I need to eat around three thousand calories a day, if not more."

There was a soft murmur from the jury, obviously disapproving his story.

"And can you explain why you felt the need to, um, harass Mr. Soapy?"

Another fifteen seconds.

"For a while now I've been on the run from these whacko scientists who either want to kill me, or want to take me back to a secret facility to experiment on me. When Soapy approached me, I only followed my instincts. I was certain he was someone trying to capture me, but I suppose I was wrong."

"This is insane," Soapy once again interrupted, "he's obviously lying!"

"Mr. Soapy! Please settle down." The Judge said. I was thinking that maybe it was Soapy I needed to convince now.

"Thank you, your honor." I said with a small nod. "And, Nick, why did you steel that car?"

"Like I said before, I thought Soapy was trying to capture me, so I had to make the quickest getaway I could manage."

"Your honor, if I could just ask Nick one question?" Soapy's attorney asked, standing and pitching in for the first time.

"Certainly, Mr. Danville." the judge said with a gesture to the stand.

"Mr. Ride, even if that story _was_ true, why would someone-- anyone-- kidnap you so that they could run experiments? You _are_ only a kid."

Fang stood up out of his seat, but didn't step from the stand.

"This is why." Fang said, letting his glorious black-as-night wings out in front of the jury.

No surprise, everyone gasped. One woman in the jury even fainted.

Fang pointed to Soapy and said, "I thought that man was going to take me back to the horrible science lab I grew up in. I had to make the fastest getaway possible because it was for my own good. I didn't fly away because there were too many witnesses in the area."

I smiled. This was going almost too perfectly.

"Your honor," I said, "This boy is _not_ only a kid. He is genetically enhanced in his senses, speed, and strength, must eat from 3000 to 4000 calories a day, and was only protecting himself when Soapy approached him."

The judge just sat there, her mouth gaping open, her eyes blinking rapidly, looking back and forth between Fang and me, making small gasp/panting sounds.

"Uh… um, has the jury reached a verdict?" she said, still in a stage of shock.

One guy sitting in the front row of the jury stood up. "We have your honor. Due to the… overwhelming condition the defendant is in, we find him not guilty." the guy said shakily.

The flock cheered and laughed and hugged, as if they thought we weren't going to win the case. But I never leave without a fight.

I almost jumped for joy, but being that I'm _me_, I didn't. I just ran up to Fang when he finally stepped down from the stand, and gave him a big bear hug, followed by a small kiss.

"C'mon," I said to him, still wrapped in his arms, "let's get out of here."

I took Fang's hand, and with the Flock, we left the courtroom and nearly ran outside into the sunlight.

I was so happy. My flock was happy, safe, and had beds to go back to. We had Fang back, and I was never going to let him leave us again.

I was about to get ready to leave when I felt Angel's gaze on me. I looked back at her.

Angel, who had grown up as my little girl, scared me when she so easily controlled people's minds, and not to long ago held a gun pointed at me. I didn't think things between us could ever be the same between us again. I thought I knew why she was staring at me, and what she wanted to ask, but things are better said aloud.

"Max," Angel said, "I know you're happy we have Fang back, but are we going to have to go through that whole thing again? Are you going to focus all of your attention on your relationship now that you have one again?" Lucky for me, I saw this coming, so it didn't hurt as much. Everyone was watching now. Good. I wanted them to hear this.

"No," I said, "we are not going through that again. I promise. The flock comes first, no matter what. I know I let you guys down before, but I won't make that same mistake again. Now, let's go. I promised Ms. Hamilton we would come back." and back we shall go.

We took off, one by one. While in the air, I filled Fang in on everything he missed, leaving most of my depression out. He already knew I was hurting. I didn't need to make him feel worse than he already did. He was a little ticked off about my saying yes to school and all that. But he laughed when I told him about Nudge jumping off the roof of the school.

"Okay, so what was with the stunt? Why didn't you just track us down if you wanted to come back?" I finally asked him. That whole mystery had been racking my brain the entire time.

"Well, I did want to come back. I missed you… a lot." he said. "But while I was gone, I gathered some info. I found out that someone was after you guys."

"Someone's always after us," I said as if it were no big deal.

"No, I mean, someone was trying to kill you guys. Someone with a lot of power. Someone who really doesn't like us. I didn't know where you guys were, so I figured I'd make a secret public announcement." Fang said with a grin that made my heart beat like a hummingbird's wings.

"But we were at the Day and Night school. It's in the middle of freaking no where. No one can find us."

Fang paused for a couple seconds, then said slowly, "they already have."

I almost dropped out of the air.

"What do you mean?"

"The person who wants to kill you is already at the Day and Night school."

**Sorry it took so long to write this. Busy week. Read and review, and suggestions are now wanted! Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Has anyone ever heard of the website ****.**** ? It's a casting website for people who want a part in the Maximum Ride movie. My friend told me about it… It's awesome!**

**Ha-ha. Thanks to all of you who reviewed! You guys are awesome! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, but I do own Silica, Mr. Soapy, Mr. Soapy's lawyer, and some of the teachers. Hey, I own a lot! Sweet! Ha-ha. Back to the story.**

Max POV

I didn't care where we were, we landed and made Fang explain. I was _not_ going straight back to school knowing there's someone there who wants to kill us without some details. We were currently flying over Tuba City, Arizona, so we landed behind a deserted building and walked inside. It was old, dusty, and there wasn't a soul in sight. Perfect.

"Okay, so, we know there is someone at the Day and Night school who wants us killed, and this person is supposedly really powerful." Iggy said, clarifying what we already know. "The question is, who wants to kill us, why do they want us killed, and how do they plan on doing it?"

I ran through the people we knew at school who didn't quite like us in my head. There was Ms. Hamilton, she definitely had some beef with us, but she wasn't all that powerful (or at least I don't think she is) and she wasn't the murderous type. There was that kiss-up kid who we met at recess, the one who said I was insane for telling Nudge to jump off the roof, but he didn't even know us and he was just some kid who we could have made easy mincemeat out of. Mr. Kaden seemed to be annoyed with us, but not really all that dangerous.

"Another question is," Iggy continued, "how did Fang get this information?" Iggy turned his head toward where Fang was sitting, looking slightly above his head.

Fang sighed and leaned forward so that his elbows were resting on his knees. "I was in Arizona, just passing through. There was an article about us in the paper, and I saw a comment that said mostly negative things. The commenter wasn't a person, but an organization. I looked it up on a laptop I swiped and hacked into some really top secret stuff. The head quarters of the organization, I saw was called the RGEN, also known as Rid Genetic Engineering National, is in Arizona. Just south-west of Grand Canyon National Park." Grand Canyon National park was close, really close. Just thinking about how easily we could get to them, or they could get to us, sent a shiver down my spine.

"I flew there and snuck in. You wouldn't believe the amount of information you could get from one computer in there. Unfortunately, I couldn't print out anything in time before the security guards came and I had to make a run for it. A lot of people are a part of the organization, but most of them help run it. It's all about being against genetic engineering. They think we're a freak of nature and don't belong in the world. So their goal is to get rid of us. For good. And never let _us_ happen again." This really wasn't that surprising news.

A lot of people thought we were freaks of nature, because we are. But if those people want us dead and are currently at the place where we've been for two days and are suppose to go back to, and we have no idea who these people are, it sort of gave me the creeps. Like we were being stalked. We've been stalked before. But we were hoping to not have it happen again.

Yeah right.

"So…" I started, "Why don't we just go back to the Day and Night school, beat this guy up till he leaves us alone, then go on with our lives?" It seemed like a no-brainer, but of coarse, everything has to have a catch.

"We don't know who this person is." Fang said. "He, or she, could strike at anytime. Plus, it's not quite as simple as just beating some guy up. Like I said before, I looked this place up. They're really powerful, and have a lot of connections. They're mostly known for the most violent attacks possible. They could bomb the school if it means getting rid of us."

That thought hadn't come to me.

"Maybe, if we found out who's at the school that's apart of the RGEN," Gazzy suggested, "we could get them outside and bomb them first." He grinned while wagging his eyebrows, already coming up with an explosive design in his head.

"Okay, we don't necessarily know that they're going to bomb us," I said. "Angel, did you happen to pick up on anything suspicious while we were back at school?"

Angel shook her head. "I only picked up on schoolwork, boy crushes, girl crushes, and more schoolwork the entire time we were there. And Silica never shuts up when she thinks! I could barely ever make out what she's thinking. It gave me a headache."

I sighed. There was no way out of it. I know if you're thinking we should've just not gone back and hoped Jeb would understand the circumstances, but it was more complicated than that. More skin-deep. Do you know that situation where you have to do something but you can't really explain why, you just have to? This was ten thousand times worse than that.

We decided to go back and just watch our backs. We knew we'd be in trouble with Jeb and my mom if we didn't go back. And we've dealt with things similar to this before. Actually, out of all the situations we've been in, this was one of the easiest. We just had to hope that we would make it out of this one with only a few cuts and bruises.

We arrived the next day, Friday, as planned.

We circled around the school, then landed with caution as Ms. Hamilton and a few teachers met us outside, followed by a crowd of students.

"Thank God you're back! We were starting to get worried!" Ms. Hamilton said, inspecting us for any sign of broken bones or injury worthy of a Band-Aid.

"We're fine," Angel said, coaxing Ms. Hamilton. "It was a piece of cake. We weren't in the court room for more than forty-five minutes."

"You went to court?" Some student who obviously wasn't caught up screamed, pulling out a cell phone to ferociously text her friends.

"And Fang is back," Nudge said, hugging Fang for the millionth time since we found him. "So I guess he'll have to take another test and be put into his classes."

"Yes, we'll do that right away," Ms. Hamilton said, waving a teacher over to give him instructions.

Fang gave me a look that said _Do I have to do this?_

I shot him a look saying _If we had to take it, so do you._

Fang took the stupid placement test, and was placed into most of my classes, and some of Iggy's, all before lunch. Sometimes I wondered what they learned after all those years on the computer and watching TV. Although I was pretty impressed with how fast he took it. When we took the test, we didn't start our classes until the next day because of our timing. Since I promised the flock to put family before relationship, I tried to keep my distance, and he did the same. Although I did sometimes have to sneak my hand into his.

That day at lunch was one of them.

We sat at our table, all the way in the far right hand corner of the cafeteria, eating our baked macaroni and cheese, today's special. We were on our third serving, almost satisfied with our day, until Miriam Fettuccini came to our table.

Miriam was a tall, strawberry blonde girl (strawberry blonde is so close to redhead that it unnerved me) with enormous hazel eyes, and a curvy yet slim figure. She wore a dark purple halter top, black skinny jeans, a loose gold belt dangling from her waist on the outside of her shirt, and grey converse that were signed by some band. She looked like she was a regular spoiled teen who just got back from a concert. What on earth was she doing here?

Of coarse, she walked right over to Fang, who was sitting across from me on the end of the table.

"Hey, you're that kid that was on the news the other day, right?" She said in a seductive, almost familiar voice, "I just thought it was so cool the way you stole that car. You're a real dare devil." Was stealing a car an attractive thing? I didn't think grand theft auto was something someone like her would look for in a guy. Maybe there was a reason she was here after all.

Fang just looked at her, obviously not thrilled by her company. "Um… okay." He said, uncertain of what to say.

I suddenly remembered where I heard her voice before. She was the girl who asked me if I knew Fang when he was on the TV in the dorm living room. I never learned her name until recently when the teacher was calling attendance earlier that day. I had most of my classes with her.

"Yeah, so, um, your name's Fang, right? That is such a cool name." Miriam stretched out her arm and let it linger on his shoulder. That set me on edge. I was about two milliseconds from dragging her a couple thousand feet in the air and dropping her.

"You're such a bad boy," Miriam said, pushing her chances of living past dinner, "I really like the bad boy type." I nearly jumped out of my seat so I could strangle her before Fang replied the best answer possible.

"Then why don't you go find yourself a bad boy," Fang said, "one that's far away from here?"

I felt like cheering. I was so happy that I couldn't stop myself from grinning.

Obviously not noticing anyone else but Fang at the moment, Miriam leaned in closer to Fang.

"Oh, I think I've already found one. And he's sitting right in front of me." She said in her most seductive voice that would bring any man to his knees.

"Only in your twisted fantasy land." Fang said, shaking her hand off his shoulder, and stuffing his mouth with another fork-full of cheesy macaroni. No wonder I loved him so much. He was clever, romantic, a snappy dresser, and a comedian. Lucky me.

Miriam the moron must of not taken the hint, because she then said, "Oh c'mon. We're having this awesome party at dorm building 1 this weekend. All the cool people are going, and you have a special invitation." Miriam winked at him, possibly giving the last wink she ever would because if no one held me back, she was going to get her eyes ripped out of their sockets.

Fang just shook his head and said, "I'm not the party type, and I have a girlfriend. And right now, I'm more worried for you than for me if she found out you were attempting to ask me out."

Nudge giggled a little, and I smiled back at her, giving a small wink. This was going to end well for us, I just knew it.

"Oh, forget your girlfriend! She doesn't have to know." Miriam said, a little desperate sounding.

I stood up, meeting Miriam at eye level. "Actually, she already does."

Miriam just looked at me like I was worth filth. "And who are you?"

I smiled devilishly. "I'm his girlfriend, and your worst nightmare." My voice was just as scary and powerful, if not more, as I intended it to be.

That scared her off, for she staggered backward and walked quickly back to her seat with a look on her face that said _What is that girl's deal?_

I laughed and slapped high fives with first Fang, then the rest of the flock. Even Dylan, who you would think would hate the idea of me being Fang's girlfriend. I guess even though Dylan was designed to be my perfect other half, he sort of wants to be his own person too, not somebody's little experiment. He completely let me go and accepted the fact that I love Fang shortly before Fang first left. He'd comforted and talked to me for a little, but it didn't help. After that he just gave up. He was currently still getting use to being a part of the flock.

Despite the agonizing hatred I felt for Miriam, those few moments were some of the absolute best at the Day and Night school. Miriam was far more beautiful than any of Fang's old girlfriends (the Redhead Wonder and Dr. Brigid Dwyer), and he didn't even look her over or anything!

_It's because he loves you too much to notice._

Huh? Okay, was this my Voice, or Angel speaking? Because at the moment, I couldn't tell.

_It's your Voice. But Angel is definitely listening, and she agrees._

I looked at Angel, who was sitting more in the center of the bench on our rectangular shaped lunch table. She smiled her cute-innocent-little-girl smile, which I totally didn't buy, at me. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head, and let my Voice continue.

_Fang only has eyes for you. Always have, and always will._

Now I was really confused. _You lost me there, Voice,_ I thought, _what do you mean 'always have'? Fang obviously didn't have eyes for me when he was lip locking the Redhead Wonder, or with Dr. Fantastic in Antarctica._

_That's where you're wrong, Max. Fang's always loved you, but he just didn't know how to show it then._

I hesitated a moment, taking it all in and observing it.

_Well, obviously! _I thought harshly back at the Voice. I wouldn't have thought _that_ was a way to show your feelings to a girl.

The day went pretty well after that. Since we had gym last period every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (with health class on Monday and computer class on Wednesday), we got to go to our specially made gym class that day.

Our gym teacher was the one and only Mr. Salome (it's pronounced like salami). We went to gym once before, on Tuesday, but that was before Fang came back. Mr. Salome was the gym teacher for all the regular P.E classes too, but that didn't make him any less great a teacher. I liked him, respected him. He never took any crap from obnoxious kids. He took order, but still knew how to have fun.

For today, he said we would just play an easy, simple game of kickball. It seemed easy enough, the way he described it. But we never made things simple. We played outside, on the turf field somebody decided to build next to the playground. It was fun. Every once in a while, someone would kick the ball so far that someone had to fly out to get it. Mr. Salome considered that a homerun.

Team one was the Gasman, Iggy, Nudge, and I. Team two was Fang, Angel, Dylan, and Total. Fang said it was unfair that the dog had to be on his team, but I told him to suck it up. Total actually proved himself useful. He managed to catch a few fly balls (in his mouth) and scored three points, using his head to "kick" the ball. Unbelievably, the game tied at 182 points each. Mr. Salome was impressed that we could score that high in only an hour. He said we could be in the Olympics, but I don't think they allow genetically enhanced bird kids to compete.

After gym, on our way back to the dorm room thanking God that school was over, Angel asked about that party Miriam invited Fang to.

"I don't think we're going to that, Angel. We weren't really invited, and Fang rejected the offer." I said kindly.

"Max, I think one or two of us should at least check it out." Angel said, really trying to convince me, but painfully staying away from mind control because she's smart enough to know I'd kill her if she did that to me.

"Why? It's just some stupid party…" I said, putting the pieces together as I finished the sentence. Angel was a mind reader. She wouldn't ask of this unless there was an absolute reason, possibly coming from someone _else's_ mind.

"You're right, Max. But I didn't really get all that much. That girl who was flirting with Fang at lunch, was sort of interested in Fang, but didn't invite him to that party of her own free will. Someone paid her fifteen hundred dollars to make sure he goes to that party."

I gaped at her. Only one person I could think of would pay fifteen hundred bucks to some loony teenager just to get Fang to a party: our secret murderer.

"Did she think the name?" I asked her, lowering my voice so that no one would hear us.

"She didn't even _know_ the name. The person sent her an envelope containing her instructions and the money. They signed it as anonymous. They said it was very important, and there was no doubt in her mind that it wasn't."

"But he refused her. She didn't even fight all that hard." I said. If she knew it was important, why did she take no as an answer? It didn't make any sense. And if the anonymous person _was_ our guy, why did he/she instruct Miriam to just get Fang to the party? Why not the rest of us?

"I think she's planning on going to Fang later, to ask him again. And I honestly don't know why this guy only wants Fang. I hate not knowing, Max. It's agonizing!"

I shushed and soothed her, holding her in my arms and petting her hair.

We arrived at the dorm building, and headed straight up to our room, giving Angel one last thought on the subject.

_All I know is, someone, other than Fang, is definitely getting into that party._

**Thank you for all your reviews! Okay, I really need suggestions! Anything you guys have will help. Thanks again! Read and Review, and tell your friends about this story! 33333 **


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks for your reviews! I shall try to make this a short one… unless you don't want me to. Ha-ha. I guess I'll just wing it (the length not the story!).**

**Disclaimer: I do ****not**** own Maximum Ride, but I still wish I did! James Patterson, if you are reading this (and I'm very thrilled and shocked if you are), I am very jealous of you!**

**Okay, back to the story. ; )**

Max POV

It was Friday evening, the night before the all important and possibly deadly party. Angel and I explained everything to the flock, all the way from what lingered in Miriam's mind to who was going to that party. One thing's for sure: Fang was not going.

Miriam's instructions from the anonymous person who could possibly be our bad guy were to make sure Fang went to that party, and no one else in the flock. So if anyone was looking, they would keep their eye out for him, not for us. But first, he had to accept the offer in person, for it was an invitation only party. What would we do without a mind reader in the flock?

We set it up so that Fang would meet Miriam right before dinner and accept her invitation, claiming that he didn't want to accept in front of his girlfriend. I was surprised that it took him a little convincing. He really did not want to go, or at least have anyone think he was going. Lucky for him, he wasn't actually going.

Angel, Dylan, and I were. Originally, I didn't want Angel to come, being that the building could explode at any given moment, but she did give a good argument about why a mind reader would be useful in this situation. We needed Dylan because he was a good fighter and could practically see the future.

Just before dinner, Gasman placed a small video camera with a microphone on Fang's jacket so that we could see and hear what was going on from the girl's dorm room. How he snuck all this spy equipment with him, I had no idea. But at the moment, I was almost glad he did.

Fang's camera was smaller than a thumbnail, so it fit and blended with his black jacket perfectly. No one suspected a thing. We watched him go downstairs and into the dining hall, where a dozen dinner tables were filled with eating kids. Fang spotted Miriam walking in through the door on the other side of the room, and he met her half way.

"Hi, Miriam. Um, I just… came over to… accept your invitation to that party." Fang said, forcing the words through his lips.

"Oh great! Fantastic!" Miriam said, pulling one decorative party invitation from her enormous purple purse. "Here. The party is tomorrow at six. It's strictly casual."

"Thanks. Sorry I didn't accept at lunch. But with my girlfriend sitting right there and all, well, you know how it is. Um can I get two more invitations… for my brothers?" Fang asked, trying to coax her into giving them to her. Fang was usually very persuasive with me, but hardly with anyone else. He just didn't have Angel's sweet talk or mind control ability.

"Sorry, I'm only allowed to invite a certain amount of people. It's not my party, you know. But if it was, you know I would." Miriam blew him an air kiss and walked away, towards her spoiled friends who I also have no idea why they're at this school.

Fang sighed, and headed back to our room.

"Sorry guys, I guess two of you will just have to sneak in somehow." Fang whispered into the microphone as he walked up the deserted hallways, making his way back to our room.

He arrived at the door, and we let him in, since the boys weren't allowed to carry the girls' room key. We took off all of his equipment, discussing how this was going to work.

"Okay, Angel, Dylan and I will go to building one with the invitation," I said, taking Fang's camera off and placing it carefully on the dresser with all the other electronic trinkets, "and then Angel will have to use her gift to convince the guard or whoever is taking invitations that Miriam let one of us take friends-"

"Wait, you _want_ me to use my gift?" Angel interrupted me, "You never want me to control people!"

I sighed. "Controlling people's minds is wrong and manipulative, but considering the circumstances, we kind of have to."

"So we get in, scope the place out, and Angel and Dylan will use their gifts to try and get all the information possible…?" I said, turning it into a question to see if Angel and Dylan would do it.

"Yeah, ok." Angel said, shrugging as if it were no big deal.

"Dylan?" I said, looking at him earnestly.

He hesitated a little, not really use to being asked a favor. "Sure, I guess." He said, repeating Angel's shrug with his broad shoulders.

I nodded in approval, and suggested we go to dinner. Everyone was more than pleased to finally eat.

The next day, we all slept in until noon, like we use to back at home. As a leader would, I got up first. I opened the shades, letting all the sunlight in, but that still didn't wake Nudge or Angel. I sighed, deciding to let them wake up themselves. I went downstairs to the kitchen, where a couple dozen kids were eating, dressed and ready for the day's events. I felt a little awkward, being down there in my pajamas, having everyone stare at me as I take six mini boxes of cereal from the closet. As I opened one of the refrigerators, hoping to find milk or something, I felt the stares and murmurs of the small group of students sitting at the table behind me.

I turned around sharply to them. "Do you guys _mind_?" I said harshly, just above a whisper.

They giggled a little, and one of the two girls said to me, "Sorry, we just found it funny that you spend the day in your Pjs."

"I slept in ,okay? Like it's any of your business what I do anyway? Get a life." I said smartly back to them.

"Yeah, but we found it odd how your _entire_ family slept in." The girl said.

I rolled my eyes at them, got the milk and juice boxes from the fridge, and headed back to my room.

As I headed back to my room, I dropped one of the cereal boxes. I bent down to pick it up, only to find someone else grab it. I looked up to see Fang, with that grin on his face that I loved so much.

"Hey," he said, tossing the mini cereal box around in his hands.

"Hi. Um… thanks." I said back, taking the cereal box out of his hands.

He sighed. "Look, I'm- I'm sorry I… caused so much trouble. I didn't realize…. I thought things would be better."

"Yeah, well, they weren't. Actually, they almost went to worst." I didn't intend that last sentence to sound as mean as it did.

There was a long, awkward silence. Someone had to break it, so I decided it would be me.

"Why did you leave, anyway?"

He hesitated, probably trying to come up with something that wouldn't get his butt kicked.

"I left because… well didn't you read my letter?"

"Yeah, I did. Worst letter I've ever gotten. It broke my heart." I mumbled. How could he think that letter could do anything _but_ brake my heart? Was I suppose to let him go and move on? Well, I guess that's what he probably originally wanted me to do for a little bit. But I could never get over something like that instantly.

"I'm sorry. But, you know, Angel was right." He said.

I was confused at this. Did Angel say something to him that made him leave? No, she wanted _me_ to leave, not Fang. Maybe he was covering for someone else, using Angel's name because I knew she was upset with us anyway.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Max, we were too preoccupied with each other to notice the flock. Anyone for that matter. It was putting all of us in danger… I was putting you in danger."

"I can take care of myself, Fang. You should know that."

"Angel was willing to _kill you. _She pointed a _gun_ at you. The house caught on _fire_ once. Someone put some weird chemical in the water supply." Fang's voice was starting to rise now. "We didn't know what could have happened in reaction to those chemicals. And when Dylan came…. Well, I just knew it was for the better."

It hit me then. _Dylan_. Dylan must have said something. I knew he would. Ever since I found them arguing when the house was on fire. He thought he was my perfect other half. Or at least someone told him that. I didn't really know his life before he came to us.

"Well, I made a promise to the flock. And I intend to keep that promise." I said. Jeez, I've been making, and keeping, a lot of promises lately. "So there's no reason for you to leave again, okay?"

He nodded slightly, "Okay."

There was that awkward silence again.

"Here, let me help you with that." Fang said, taking some of the cereal boxes and milk cartons from my hands. I mumbled a thanks, and lead him to my room, which contained a still sleeping Nudge and Angel. There was no way they were waking up anytime soon. I placed two boxes of cereal and milk on each of their dressers, and Fang placed the other two boxes and juice on my dresser.

"So, am I forgiven?" Fang asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

I smiled warmly. "Yes. For now."

He took my hand, which made my heart flutter, and led me back out into the hallway, which was surprisingly privet since everyone was either downstairs or out at another dorm building. He put his hands on my waist, and pulled me into a warm, desirable kiss I so long deserved and missed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he pulled me in closer. The kiss was warm, but not too light, and I loved every second of it. Our bodies were pressed tightly together, my left side and his right side leaning against the wall in the cream colored hallway. As the kiss went on, I slowly forgot everything. Was I upset earlier? I couldn't have been mad at Fang. Never. Not in a million years. After all, he was such a good kisser! Not that I've kissed many guys. Was there something I should be planning? Something important? I didn't know.

"You know," Fang said in between kisses, "I've really… missed you… so… much."

"Probably… not even close… to my missing… you." I said, my fingers entwining in his too long hair. He obviously didn't get a haircut while he was gone. "Jeb had to come and use the 'your flock needs you' speech to even get me out of bed."

"Really?" Fang said, pulling his head back a drop, his eyes filling with sadness and sorrow. "I'm so sorry I put you through that."

"Well, it's over now." I mumbled, just above a whisper. "Don't worry about it, okay?" I leaned my head against his shoulder, and he rubbed my back in the spot between my wings. It felt so good to have someone do that again.

We stood there for a couple minutes, our lips meeting every once in a while, until one of us had to be responsible.

"The kids will be waking up soon, and someone's going to find us like this if we don't move." I said, with a small grin at the end.

"Yeah, okay." Fang said, giving me one last, warm kiss. Then we broke apart and went back to our different rooms. Responsible. One of my absolute least favorite words.

What do you wear to a party that was set up to kill one of your own? Aren't you just suppose to look casual? Well, our casual usually wasn't very common when you think of "casual". Our casual was considered below casual standards. But I didn't want to get dressed up in party clothes when I had to be ready to fight. I borrowed one of Nudge's neon shirts, one that she ordered from a fashion catalog, and a pair of jeans that were relatively clean of stains. Angel just wore anything she could move in. Nobody expected a seven year old to get all girled-up for a dorm party. Dylan wore a blue T-shirt and jeans. Was that party-worthy for a boy? I did not know.

Angel took the invitation and stuffed it into a small, pink, empty mini-purse. That way, after she got rid of the invitation, she could ditch the purse when necessary.

If anyone was going to give in the invitation, it was going to be the one who would convince them (whoever _they _are) to let Dylan and me in. The only thing I was worried about was… what were we going to do once we found our crazy psycho stalker? Beat him (or her, for that matter, but saying 'he or she' all the time is a waste of time so I'll just assume it's a he) up? What if he has weapons? I don't think we can go up against a bazooka, if he has one. Threaten him? Yeah, like _that_ has ever gotten anyone anywhere in a situation even remotely close to this. Kill him before he kills us? It was possible. But we weren't known for murder. If anyone involved with us died, it was never technically caused by one of us. But maybe we could….

Plan. I needed a plan. I was always known for having a plan no matter what situation we were in. But how could I come up with a plan when I really had no idea what was going to happen once we entered that party?

Dorm building one was not very far from building four. Well, for us it wasn't. The lights were visible, and very bright, from outside, and there was a song with a heavy bass guitar playing that boomed throughout the campus. As I suspected, there was a guard standing outside the door collecting invitations.

Angel handed him the invitation, and attempted to lead us in.

"Hey," the guard said in a deep voice, putting his large arm in front of Dylan and me, blocking our way, "no one goes in without an invitation."

"They're with me," Angel said, looking into his eyes as his expression went from stern to entranced. "I was told I could bring two friends, and they're allowed inside."

"They're allowed inside." The guard said, putting his arm down.

I had to admit, Angel was scary sometimes. Her acting skills were incredible. Or was she really acting?…

We walked quickly through the entrance hall before he realized what just happened, and walked right into a living room and dining room transformed into a multicolored world of music, dancing, and free snacks. I did a quick 360 of the place. I didn't see anyone that looked the slightest bit suspicious. Everyone was having a good time.

But don't let that fool you. Someone grabbed my forearm, and in the next two minutes, all hell broke loose.

**Okay, I guess my plan for making this chapter short pretty much failed. But I guess if you all can handle reading a 400 page book like Maximum Ride, you can handle reading this. Please review! Every review counts! ; )**


	8. Chapter 8

**Oreos are good aren't they? They are just great. Ha-ha. I'm eating Oreos while I'm writing this. Yummy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. **

Max POV

I whipped around and nearly chopped the person's arm off. But I didn't, for it had to be someone who didn't know me that well. Otherwise they would have thoughttwice before sneaking up on me.

At first I didn't see the person's face, only a blur of dark clothing under the rapidly changing party lights. But as my raptor vision adjusted, I realized I was staring at Silica.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, a worried and pissed off look in her eyes.

"We came for the party!" I said, trying to speak over the blasting music. I looked at Dylan and Angel, and they nodded in agreement as they simultaneously started dancing. They weren't able to do much in the tight crowd. The party started only twenty minutes ago and already it was packed. What ever happened to being fashionably late?

She sighed with irritation. "But you're not suppose to be here. I checked the list."

"We were on the list-" Angel started to argue, but I cut her off.

"Wait. There was no list when we came in." I said. Silica opened her mouth, then closed it immediately, at a loss for words. "You needed an invitation to get in." I continued.

Silica looked at us nervously. Busted. I was about to say more when her hip vibrated. She took out her phone, pursed her lips, and excused herself.

She started to walk away. I wanted to follow her, for it seemed like she was pretty mad at whoever was calling her. It all seemed suspicious. But she was going too fast, and before I could even take two steps, I lost her in the crowd.

Miriam POV

I was muttering to myself. I must have been pretty pissed off because I rarely ever muttered. It would be so embarrassing if anyone found me talking to myself. I would be weirder than that group of new kids with the bottomless pits as stomachs. I swear they had eating disorders.

Although, the kid named Fang _was_ pretty cute. I could see why the blond liked him so much, but why did _he _like the blond one? There had to be a reason he was going out with her, and it's not because she had a "nice personality" or even a "hot figure". Her hair was so messed up (did she _ever_ shower?), she obviously had anger issues, and she was bossy. Maybe he was being paid.

Like me.

I pulled out the beige envelope from my Chanel designer handbag. Inside was the extra $200 for my new assignment, a room key, and the message. I've read it three times already, and I had to read it a fourth time to make sure what was written on it was true. I really, really didn't want to do it. I read the note one more time before I ruined my clean permanent record.

Miriam Fettuccini,

I have been watching, and I am disappointed with your progress. The one thousand five hundred dollars from your previous assignment was given to you for one reason and one reason only. To be sure the dark winged boy is at dorm building one by seven p.m.

I looked at my watch. It was eight o'clock, two hours into the party. Two hours of the party I've missed. I was suppose to enter that party a little late so I can turn some heads and surprise everyone with my amazing outfit that was custom made just for me.

Since you have failed that assignment, your new assignment is to complete the old one. Bring the boy to dorm building one by midnight, and you will receive the last $300 you need for your father. Do not fail. I have given you the key to his room, in case you must take drastic measures. Speak to him again. If he refuses, use your imagination. If you must use the injectors, do not inject him. I wish for him to be awake when at the party. If you fail yet again, do not expect your father to visit you anymore.

Anonymous

I shuttered, still scared by the last sentence. My father visited me twice a month, bringing gifts from my mother who was presently in Beijing on a four month business trip. Again. My father tended to work closer to my school so that I wouldn't miss him. I always loved my dad. Sometimes more than my mom, but that was probably because I hardly ever saw my mother to get to know her. She was always away on business. Recently, my father came down with an illness that drastically called for a $200,000 surgery. We were pretty wealthy, but not _that_ wealthy. We had most of the money to pay for it, but were still short $20,000 because of this stupid budget my mom had us on. This assignment could save my father's life.

I held the room key in my hand, squeezing it so hard I thought I might have broken it. I really liked Fang, but I didn't want to _kidnap_ him! But I loved my father too much. I didn't have a choice.

I entered the building, and headed to his room. I hesitated before opening the door, checking my bag to make sure I didn't forget something. I didn't. I slipped the key into the lock, and it beeped, opening the door.

The room was dark and silent. The only noise coming from Fang and his snoring brothers. I was told that one of his brothers had super sensitive hearing, but I didn't know which one. So I took out the two syringes, and injected the weird drug into the tall pale one first, and the smaller one second. I wasn't really sure what the drug was called; I only knew that it made them unconscious for twelve hours. They slept in everyday anyway, so no one would notice. I only wanted to make sure that neither of them woke up while I dragged Fang out of the room. Like the letter said, I didn't inject Fang with the drug. But I wished I could have. It would have made this so much easier.

I took the rope and the duct tape out of my bag. I began with his mouth, silently and carefully wrapping the duct tape around it as it sagged from his drool. _Gross!_ I then tied up his hands and feet with the rope.

He must have been one heavy sleeper, or really out of it, because he didn't even flinch when I dragged him off his bed and he heavily plopped on the floor.

Dragging him through the sand to building one was hell. He was really light, but my nails kept braking and my high heels (the ones that were put aside for the party) were giving me blisters. For one moment, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, I only concentrated on moving faster , and his head bumped into a big, heavy rock that was stuck in the sand.

I cursed under my breath as his eyes flew open.

Max POV

The party went on, and on, and on. It felt like forever. Angel searched everyone's mind, and Dylan kept his eyes open for anything that might happen. I will save you all the details about the annoying glances, comments, and sneers from all the students who didn't want us there. I will, fortunately for you, skip to the part where something actually happened.

It was around eight thirty when Silica came back to us with the guard from the door. Of coarse, the guard didn't recall ever letting us in, only telling us it was invitation only. Silica asked many how's and why's concerning how we got in and why we were there.

"Why do you care?" I finally asked her.

"Because I don't like trouble makers, and I know the president of the board of ed. for our school who can get all three of you suspended, or even expelled."

"Hold up, why would the president of the board of ed. care if some kids snuck into a dorm party?"

Silica hesitated, her threat going down the toilet. "I had more faith in you guys when you first came here. I thought you guys would behave because… I know there's no where else for you to go." She said sincerely. No where else to go? We had a million better places to go, and yet we were _there_.

"Who are you to judge us about how we act?" I said coldly, stepping closer to her as she slightly shrunk in fear. Apparently the fear was staged, for she swiped all emotion except for the ready-to-face-an-army look. Her look almost matched mine, and that was pretty impressive.

"I am Silica Elizabeth Allbright, a.k.a., your worst nightmare." She said. If lasers could shoot out of her eyes, they would have been at that moment. My eyes widened at the realization of who she was, with the help of Angel's warning thoughts.

_Max, Max! It's her! I wasn't sure of it before because I only had glimpses. But now I'm positive! It's her!_

It _was_ her. Silica. She was the stalker who wanted us dead! But why? She seemed so nice and helpful at first, well before she went all teacher's pet/hall monitor on me. Plus, she was just some average, perky yet gothic human who we met in school. A school for "special" kids, but still.

_Silica set up this party. It was all a trap to get Fang!_

Anger pulsed through me. With every beat of my heart, I felt more hatred for Silica, and more hope that Fang was in his dorm, fast asleep.

"You're the one who's trying to kill us off." I said, slowly, so that anyone who wasn't exactly caught up (cough*Dylan*cough*if Angel hadn't already told him*cough).

Silica's eyes widened. I bet she didn't see _that_ one coming.

"I-I" she stuttered, "I d-don't know w-what you're t-talking about-t." Wow. She really was a horrible liar.

"Save the lies for when your on your deathbed." I said, swinging my right arm back and punching her square in the nose. I think I broke it. She was tough, for she only staggered backward a few steps.

Silica touched her nose, winced, then looked at the blood on her hand. Her head shook in anger. "You bit-"

She was cut off by a girl near the door screaming bloody murder.

This is the part where all hell broke loose.

Ten minutes earlier

Fang POV

My eyes flew open. My head hurt. And I was in a very uncomfortable position. I looked up to just barely see Miriam standing over me. What the hell?

It took me a couple seconds to realize that I was laying in sand, my hands and legs were bound, and my mouth was taped shut.

"Wmmmff thmmm mlllll mmmmfff ggnnng nnn?" I said through the tape. I meant to say "what the hell is going on?" but it didn't really come out that way.

I struggled to stand, or to even brake the rope by pulling my hands apart. Miriam must have worked for the military at some point in her life time because those knots were _really_ tight! In doing so, I spotted a bright light. It was coming from the front window of dorm building one, where Max was. I started to crawl towards it, but I blacked out as searing pain spread through the back of my head.

Miriam POV

Oh God, oh God. Okay, knocking Fang out with a rock was smart, but not when blood started to drip from his head and onto the sand. God, did I _kill him_? No, apparently not. He was waking up. Anonymous wanted Fang at that party, so Fang's going to that party. I mean, he was waking up. That counts as _awake_… right?

I kicked the doors to the dorm building open, music pounding against my eardrum, and a girl I knew, named Catty, screamed her head off. She always was first to freak out over everything.

Max POV

Standing in the very center of the dance floor with about a hundred and two kids surrounding you is not the best way to look for a psycho murderer. Read that last sentence again and tell me that isn't strange at all.

It was sweaty with body heat, and really crowded, so I had to push a couple of kids over to get to the door where the girl screamed. Miriam was standing there, holding Fang by his jacket. Fang was tied by his hands and feet, and he was half unconscious.

"Fang!" I screamed, running to him, checking his neck for a pulse. I look up at Miriam. "What did you do to him?" I said, putting as much venom in my voice as possible.

She looked at me sincerely. "I'm sorry Max, but I had to do it. I didn't have a choice."

"Didn't have a choice? Everyone has a choice!"

"I did make a choice! But I couldn't choose Fang. I. Am. Sor-"

She was interrupted by Silica pushing us both away from Fang and ripping the duct tape off his mouth.

"Ow!" Fang said.

"Shut up." Silica snapped at him.

"Silica stop!" I screamed. "Why the hell are you doing this? Why do you hate us to the point that you want to kill us?" Some gasps came from the surrounding crowd. "I mean, you barely even know us!" I noticed that the DJ had turned the music off, so now everyone could hear us. Fantastic.

"You freak mutants are all the same! Remember how I said my father was a lawyer and my mom was a cop? Well, they're both dead now. They've been dead for seven years, ever since freaks like you ruined my life!"

"Hey!" I snapped at her. "We didn't do anything! So don't go around accusing random people for your parents death."

"It was one of you. Not one of your pathetic flock, but probably someone you know who murdered my parents. A winged mutant." She spat.

"There aren't-" I stopped myself. I remembered the other bird kids from the Itex building in New York. And there were hundreds of Itex buildings around the world. Who knows how many of us were there? Was it possible that one or more of them escaped and went crazy?

"Ever since my parents died, I swore to myself and the world that I would rid the world of all mutants, winged or not."

I hesitated. "And you got RGEN to help you." I said. It wasn't a question.

"No." Silica said with ice in her tone. "I invented Rid Genetic Engineering National. Everyone in that corporation works for me. And I do well to help it flourish with my family fortune."

"Okay wait," Miriam cut in, "So _you're_ Anonymous? You're the one who made me kidnap Fang?"

"Looks like it." I said, not moving my eyes from Silica's death gaze.

"But I don't understand. You lost your father, so why would you threaten to take away mine? He's already sick." Miriam said, sounding appalled.

"Because I knew it was the only way you'd do it!" Silica turned on her, braking our gaze. "Every two weeks your father comes here with hundreds of dollars worth of gifts, and you just seem so happy! I can never have that with my dad. I saw how much you loved him, and I knew you wouldn't risk losing that."

As they argued and talked through the why's and how's, I saw out of the corner of my eye Angel slowly walking towards me. When she was at my side, she handed my a knife behind her back, unseen by Silica and Miriam. Where in the hell did she get a knife? Did she have that the entire time we were here? Where did she hide it?

_Give it to Fang. _She told me. I immediately understood without question. I inched my way over to Fang and handed him the knife the same way Angel did; behind my back and unseen by anyone else.

When the knife slipped into his grasp, he silently started cutting away the rope.

"But this isn't right! If a human killed your parents, would you try and kill off every last human being on the planet?" Miriam said.

"That's not the point. My parents died _because_ it was a mutant freak. If they didn't exist," Silica said, pointing at me, "my parents would still be alive!"

Attention was drawn back on Fang and me, and I was worried that someone would notice Fang freeing himself.

My fears came true. Silica saw the knife in his hand. She grabbed Fang by his too long black hair, stole the knife with her other hand, and placed the blade right on his throat.

"I'm ganna get this over with. And you, Max, and the rest of your little gang, are going to watch him suffer. Then it will be your turn."

Fang screamed as a small line of blood began to drip down his neck.

I tried to tackle her, but that stupid guard from the front door was holding me back. He was strong, inhumanly strong. I could beat guys like him up without braking a sweat, and he was holding me back? How was that possible? I looked for Angel, but she was no where to be seen. I ignored the screams, the 911 calls, and the commotion going on around me so I could focus on getting free and saving Fang.

Silica was slitting his throat slowly, painfully, and only cut about half an inch when someone crashed into her, knocking her down, and saving Fang's life.

I was relieved and surprised. I only saw the back of his head and the shirt he was wearing to know it was Dylan, and he was beating Silica to a pulp. That had to be one of the very rare times when I was actually thankful for having met Dylan, and having him with us.

I felt the guard release me, and I looked behind me to see him unconscious, and Angel standing behind him.

_I told him to knock himself out._ She thought to me with a devilish smile.

I hugged her for a brief second, then went to help free Fang. I was cutting the ropes holding his hands together, and Angel was unknotting the ropes at his feet.

Someone must have gotten through with the police because they were filling the place up, moving people outside, and trying to get the place cleared out and less chaotic _instead_ of trying to help us. Sometimes you can't send an adult to do a bird kid's job.

Once we got Fang free, I left him to the paramedics who just walked in, and went over to finish Silica.

I shooed Dylan off her, and I saw how messed up she was. Her face was all bloody from her nose and mouth, her nose was practically hanging off her face, her eyes were throbbing and black, and it looked like she lost a couple teeth. I grabbed her by the throat, and lifted her so that she was upright and her feet were dangling a couple inches off the ground.

"I'm sorry about your parents," I said through clenched teeth, "but you don't ever, _ever_ mess with me and my flock, or you will live to regret it. You got that?"

She didn't nod, probably because she was unable to. She let out a few choking sounds, and I dropped her like a dead fish. Her gasped and chocked on the ground, coughing up blood.

"Officers, please take her away." I said, not taking my eyes from her crumbled figure.

An officer brought her to her feet and handcuffed her. "Silica Elizabeth Allbright, you're under arrest for attempt at murder, death threats, kidnapping, and assault."

Five minutes later, an officer holding a notepad with information written on it came up to me. He was probably filling out a report. "Okay, Rid Genetic Engineering National is being shut down," he assured me, "Silica will be in Juvenile prison for a long time, so you and your friends don't have to worry about her. Miriam will be-"

"Oh, Miriam didn't do anything wrong." I interrupted him. A few days ago, I never thought I would say that. Now I'm defending her. Weird how fast people change.

"I know," he said. "Miriam will be questioned and brought home for a short period of time."

"When will she be back in school?" I asked, not really curious, but wanting to make sure she'd be alright.

"She'll be back in school in a minimum of two weeks."

"What about her dad? I heard he was sick."

"Her dad will be fine. We're taking the money RGEN had raised and donating it to her father's surgery." I felt relief and happiness for Miriam. Things would be okay for her, and for us. "Okay, so far I've interviewed a boy named Dylan, Nick Ride, and Angel Ride. Can you please share any information you have?"

I did. I told him mostly everything I knew from when Miriam asked Fang out that one day at lunch up to the previous ten minutes.

"Good, good." the officer said, scribbling the last of his notes onto the paper. "And your name is…?" He asked.

I smiled slightly. "My name is Max. Maximum Ride."

**This was a really long one, sorry. Don't worry, there's still one or two more chapters to this story, so please comment!**

**Random Question for you guys. This might help me with the next chapters and future stories. Does it make the story better or worse when I switch POV's to characters other than Max? **

**Oreos are still amazing. **

**REVIEW!**


	9. Chapter 9

**My friend is obsessed with lip butter. Not balm, not gloss… butter. She says it's the best (?)… I WANT SOME! Ha-ha-ha. **

**Thank you for all of your reviews! They were much appreciated!**

**Disclaimer: These pretty much say the same thing again and again. I wonder how many people actually read these. Okay, if you are reading this disclaimer that ****I do not own Maximum Ride,**** please leave a comment saying so…. **

**Lip butter. Ha-ha. Cracks me up!**

Max POV

I sat on a chair. A pretty comfy one, as chairs go. I was sitting in the living room of dorm building one, which had party decorations hanging, literally hanging, from the walls and ceiling, empty plastic cups that once contained drinks all over the floor, and pieces of chips, pretzels, popcorn, and deviled eggs dropped and broken on the small square tables placed randomly around the room (some of which were knocked over).

On my right stood Angel. Being that I was sitting down and she was standing up, we were almost at eye level. Sitting on the floor on my left was a bruised Dylan, applying Band-Aids and ice packs all over him.

In front of me lay the love of my life, Fang, who was being fixed up by paramedics. I refused to let them helicopter him to a hospital, being that he would heal pretty quickly anyway. They wrapped an Ace bandage around his head where he was bleeding, and were now trying to stop his neck from bleeding as well. They gave him some medicine that would make him go numb so that he wouldn't feel any pain.

I think I was feeling all of his pain for him. Every time they moved him, dabbed him with cloth, or even touched him, I felt an immense amount of unbearable pain. I couldn't stand to see how close he'd been to being murdered. Sure, he'd been in plenty of conditions far worse than this. He'd been beaten to a pulp, knocked unconscious, and smacked upside the head plenty of times (that last one probably caused by me). But never, ever, in a million years had I seen, nor ever wanted to see, someone put a knife to Fang's neck and draw blood from it. We could take bullet wounds and beatings any day. But a knife to the throat meant about as much as it did to any normal human: imminent death.

And he'd been so close to it.

And I was being held back by a freakish superhuman whom I still didn't have any explanation for. If Dylan hadn't been there, Fang could be dead.

I really didn't know if I owed him, or should repay in some way, or should just thank him. But Dylan did save one of us, so he deserved more than to just be treated like he's been treated since he came.

As the paramedics finished up Fang's neck, I absently stroked Angel's hair while she sat on the arm of the chair. By this time (it was probably around nine o'clock by now), Fang was fully awake, breathing, and functional.

He looked up at me with sorrowful eyes. "You okay?" I asked him. "You've had quite a night."

"Yeah. Damage isn't too bad. But my neck is throbbing." He said. He stood up, a little off balance at first, then found his center. Angel left my side and hugged him tightly.

"I'm really sorry this happened to you Fang." she said, her voice cracking with sobs. "It was my fault, too. I should have been more cautious and alert instead of trying to ignore people's thoughts when someone was planning to kill you!"

"Hey, hey," Fang said with a small smile in his voice, hugging her back. "It's okay Angel, it wasn't your fault. Just same old, same old. People trying to kill us. Nothing really different."

Fang got away from Angel's tight grasp and approached Dylan, who was fumbling with his ice packs trying to get up. Fang helped him up, then said, "Hey, man, I want to… thank you… for what you did back there. You really saved my neck. Literally."

Dylan shrugged it off. "Your apart of the flock. You've _been_ part of the flock. And like Max once told me, Flock Rule number one: the safety of the flock always comes first." He looked over and winked at me.

I tried to smile, but I don't think it was very convincing.

The DJ was still there, claiming he was suppose to stay until 10 or later or else he didn't get paid for the night. So he decided to play soft music in the background of all the commotion.

The song he played next was one of Fang and my favorites. It had a slow, soft melody that made you sway a little whenever you heard it.

Fang looked at me, and offered his hand. "Would you like to dance?" He asked, smiling that smile he knew I could never resist. I graciously took his hand, and he lead me to the center of the room. The DJ turned it up a little, and we danced.

Fang put his hands on my hips, and I placed my arms gently around his neck. Neither of us really knew how to dance, much less ever did dance, so we just swayed, moving slowly in circles. We let the music sink into us, as I stared into his dark, mysterious, beautiful eyes, and he looked into my brown eyes.

The piano in the beginning was always my favorite part, then the words came in.

_From the moment I saw you,_

_From the moment I looked into your eyes,_

_There is something about you, _

_I knew, I knew._

_That you were once in a lifetime,_

_A treasure near impossible to find,_

_And I know how lucky I am to have you,_

'_cause I've seen the rainbows that could take your breath away,_

_The beauty of the setting sun that ends a perfect day._

_And when it comes to shooting stars, I've seen a few_

At this point, Fang started to lip-sing the song, just like we use to when we lived in our house.

_But I've never seen anything…_

_As beautiful as you._

As I looked around, I could see others dancing too. Some of them were people from the party who decided to come back (although I couldn't possibly see why). We stayed like this for a few minutes, letting all the love and emotions soak in. I also saw Angel and Dylan dancing together, like brother and sister.

Which reminded me of something.

"Hey Fang," I said, just barely over the music so that no one else could hear us. "Where are the Gasman and Iggy?"

He hesitated, looking confused, as if the answer should be really obvious.

"There back in our dorm, sleeping."

"Yeah, but if Miriam kidnapped you, she would have had to have gotten into your room. How did she not wake those two up? How did she not wake _you_ up?" I asked.

Fang looked puzzled. I shouldn't have brought it up. I probably ruined our entire evening.

Although, it was probably ruined anyway. As far as evenings go, this one didn't really make the top ten.

"I don't know." Fang said finally. "Usually they wake at the sound of a pin drop. I wonder if…"

He looked at me with realization in his eyes, I didn't really know exactly what he thought had happened, but I knew from my gut that something had happened to them.

We broke apart, and raced out the door. I heard someone calling our names behind us, but we ignored them. Something kept Gasman and Iggy from waking up. Miriam must have did something to them (or Silica made her do something to them). If Silica did anything to them, in person or not, the next time she goes to church she'll be in a box.

We stormed through our dorm building, tired party-goers lounging in the living room. All eyes turned on us as we raced to Fang's dorm room. My eyes were bugging out of my head with nervousness.

He smoothly slipped the room key in the lock, and swung the door open as it beeped. I was relieved to see that they were both in bed, but a nervous wreck to hear them _not_ snoring, like they always do. I went straight to Gazzy, and Fang went to Iggy.

"Gazzy, Gazzy wake up!" I said, shaking his shoulder. "Gasman, please, WAKE UP!" I shook him harder, and he rolled right off the bed and plopped on the floor.

"Oh my god." I said, pushing my hair away from my face as I stared down at a crumbled Gazzy. Iggy didn't so much as flinch. "What the hell did she _do_ to them?"

I looked behind me as Angel, Dylan, and Nudge burst through the door. Nudge screamed when she saw Gazzy.

"What happened?" Dylan asked.

"I don't know! We realized that there was no way Miriam could have kidnapped Fang without waking them up and figured out she must have did someth-"

I stopped abruptly when Miriam stepped through the doorway behind Angel. Her eyes were sad. Really sad. Almost… apologetic.

But I was not forgiving. I didn't care if it was her idea or not. I needed to punch something, and I wasn't the let-all-your-anger-out-on-a-pillow type.

"What the hell did you do to them?" I screamed at her, pointing to Iggy and Gazzy's lifeless bodies.

"Don't worry, they're not dead." She said simply.

"Oh well _that's _a relief!" I said sarcastically. "Why aren't they waking up?"

"I had to inject sleeping drugs into them. They won't wake up until tomorrow morning. I figured no one would notice because you all sleep in anyway."

"Yeah, well, we noticed. It turns out people don't snore when they're unconscious!"

She let out an "Oh" and I ran to Iggy's bed. I snapped my fingers next to his ear. Usually if I did this, he would pounce on me and complain for being so loud. His supersensitive ears weren't always advantageous for him. "C'mon Iggy." I said in frustration.

"He won't wake up until another, like, nine or ten hours. I told you, it's the drugs."

"Isn't there, like, an- an antidote or something?" I asked frantically.

"Max, calm down," Dylan said, "they'll wake up in the morning. No big deal."

I just stared at him like he was crazy. "Of coarse it's no big deal!" I snapped. "It's _never_ a big deal with you. But guess what, it _is_ a big deal. Just the thought of someone drugging my flock _again_ makes me want to strangle someone. We spent our entire childhoods being drugged, experimented on, and being medicated. We spent the rest of our lives trying to get away from all that! We aren't going to let some stupid human girl," I looked at Miriam, "Silica I mean, do that to us again." My gaze sent shards into Dylan. He honestly looked shocked, and weak, compared to me. "Right now, and for the rest of the night, the Gasman and Iggy are completely vulnerable. What if we need to leave again? What if someone else finds us and attacks, or worse, _kidnaps _them and takes them away?"

"You don't know that any of that stuff is going to happen, Max." Dylan said, raising his voice so it matched mine. He must think he's the smartest guy in the world. He is so wrong it's laughable.

"The thing is, Dylan, all that stuff already _had_ happened to us. It's happened to almost _all _of us. And do you know what I see when I look at Gazzy and Ig like that?" I waited.

Dylan shoved his bruised and bandaged hands into his pockets. "What do you see?"

"I see them in dog crates again. Unconscious. In _pain._ Every. Single. Day." The venom in my voice scared even me. But I didn't show it. Miriam was in tears.

Dylan might have saved Fang's life, but he still didn't deserve praise or thanks. Not if he kept talking like he knew it all.

Nudge, Angel and I left the boys to their room. I dropped Angel and Nudge off at our room, and walked Miriam back to hers.

"I'm really, really sorry about this, Max." She said for the eighteenth time. And yes, I have been counting.

"Yeah, yeah." I just said. I really couldn't say "No, it's okay" or "I forgive you" because it wasn't okay, and I couldn't forgive her.

"Miriam," I said. She was half a step into her dorm, where her room mates were waiting, eager to get every single little detail of whatever, "I just want to let you know, I know why you did it. If I were as close to my dad as you are to yours, I probably would have done the same thing. Besides, you didn't really know what was going to happen anyway. I guess it could have been a lot worse." I hoped that was reassuring. It was really hard to gush and share my feelings with someone outside the flock.

"Yeah, I guess." She said. I could see her roommates peeking over the edges of their beds. "Well, thanks. And if you guys ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask. I've got my connections." She said with a smile.

I smiled back, and headed straight to my room, where I plopped on my bed and immediately went to sleep.

In the morning, Gasman and Iggy will be conscious, Fang will be safe and unharmed, and it will be as if the past few days didn't happen.

I hope.

**Okay, so this chapter wasn't as good. But I counted the pages and was like "How the hell do I have nine pages already? I just started!" L.O.L. I guess time flies. Review, review, review!**

**And BTW I found out where to get some lip butter! Ha-ha-ha-ha!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Okay, so the last chapter wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. But don't worry, this chapter will be much better! I will answer most unanswered questions here. So… enjoy!**

**And BTW I'm starting my second fanfic! It's called "The Girl in the Wheelchair". Check it out once it's up!**

**Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own Maximum Ride, but I really wish I did.**

Max POV

Practically the entire building and the next few over woke up to screaming, cursing, and threatening. And, big surprise, it was all coming from Iggy and the Gasman.

I jumped out of bed, followed by Angel and Nudge, and had to use all of my willpower to not whip out my wings and fly right through the ceiling. I tried opening the door to their dorm, but rammed my shoulder right into the door instead. It was locked. Damn, where can a girl get a key in this place?

I banged on the door, and almost knocked Dylan's head off as he swung it open. I barged in, coming face to face with an arguing Iggy, Gazzy, and Fang.

I could just barely make out what they were saying, or screaming for that matter.

"You weren't drugged! How could you just sleep through something like that? What if our bodies didn't take the stupid drugs like normal people's bodies do? We could of died from a reaction or something!" The Gasman was screaming.

"How in the hell could I have not woken up from that needle? I should have felt it right? Right? Jeez! How can such a loud girl be so dang quiet? She didn't make one flipping sound! Man, I swear I'm going to bomb her for doing this! And Fang, why didn't you wake up? You said you weren't drugged! Yet you were tied up and duct taped!" Iggy was yelling.

"I don't flipping know! I have no idea how any of this happened! Why are you yelling at me? It wasn't my fault! I didn't know she was going to kidnap me! I don't even know how she got into our room!" Fang was shouting.

All this was happening at the exact same time before I cut in.

"HEY! CARE TO TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?"

Everyone went silent. Can't beat the power of Max.

"They're blaming me for being kidnapped." Fang explained.

"We're wondering how he slept _through_ being kidnapped!" Gasman said, motioning with his hand to Fang.

"I think I can answer that." I made a 180 turn, and looked straight into Miriam's bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes.

"Why are you always just walking into our room like that?" Fang asked, his voice still raised from screaming.

Miriam cringed. "It's not really that hard. I just follow the sound of the screaming and end up walking in with the something to say." Huh. I never realized before how loud we were every time she walked in on us, whether we were arguing or not.

"Okay, back to your answer…?" I said, trying to speed things up. I just wanted the arguing to stop and our lives to go back to normal. I was sick of all this nonsense. Going to school was a horrible idea. Why in the world did I ever agree to it?

"Yesterday, at dinner, I didn't notice it at the time, but when I think back about it, I swear I saw Silica doing something weird. Fang, do you remember when Silica was talking to you?"

"Yeah," Fang said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said. "Silica was talking to you yesterday? When?"

"At dinner. You weren't there because you were planning for the party. I didn't say anything because it didn't seem like a big deal. She just talked about school stuff, what classes I liked, how the food was, stuff like that." He was right. We never would have suspected Silica yesterday at dinner time, so it really didn't seem like a big deal. It seemed like a big deal now.

"Yeah, and it was like, two minutes after I tried talking you into going to the party again." Miriam said to Fang. Then she turned to me. "If Silica was the one stalking both you guys and me, then I know for a fact that she listened in on our conversation and knew he rejected me again." She then turned back to Fang. "How early did you go to bed last night?"

"Um, I think right away. I was really tired." Fang said, scratching the back of his head.

"Exactly what I thought. I think Silica might have put something in your drink. Some sleeping stuff that would make you tired, but not keep you unconscious, and not wake you up unless, say, you were hit on the back of the head with a big rock…?" Miriam said. Realization and understanding crossed Fang's eyes. I was, however, seriously confused.

"Wait a minute, I don't get this. Silica put junk into Fang's drink. That explains why Miriam didn't have to inject him with sleeping drugs, and why he didn't wake up when she kidnapped him." I didn't know who I was talking to, mostly myself, I think. I turned to Miriam, and turned on my offensive side. "What do you mean Fang was hit on the head with a rock? And how do you know Silica was listening to your and Fang's conversation? And why do you think she put something in his drink just because he rejected you?"

Miriam swallowed, then cleared her throat. "Well, the only way I could get him to the party was if I dragged him in the sand. One second I wasn't paying attention, and a rock made impact with his head. That's what woke him up in the first place. He was half dead at the party because I panicked, picked up the rock he ran into, and hit him on the back of the head with it. I know Silica was listening because in the letter she sent me with his room key and the money, she told me she would be watching. And she said if I failed trying to talk him into going again, I had to take drastic measures. Does that answer all of your questions?"

I tapped my chin, "I think so… For now."

There was an awkward silence. I really hated these. Long silences made me uncomfortable. Lucky for me, Gasser broke the silence.

"So… Fang actually _was_ drugged?" He asked.

"I guess so." Total said. Total? Where has he been this entire time? I haven't seen him since… when?

"Total? Where'd you come from? And where have you been?" I asked. I looked at Fang, he seemed to be confused as well. If Total went missing, Angel would have said something.

"Not here. There's been too much tension. I've been escaping down to the living room the past few days. Hanging out with the students, telling them about Akila." He sighed. He really missed Akila. We had to leave her back with my mom and Ella. Maybe after all of this was over, we could convince Ms. Hamilton to let her come and stay here. "But don't worry," he continued, "Angel knew about it. I didn't want you guys worrying about a dog in your situation."

I shook my head, pinching the bridge of my nose to prevent a headache.

I left the room, went back to mine so I could take a shower, then went downstairs for breakfast, fully dressed and ready. I had a mini box of Fruit Loops, and orange juice. I chewed slowly, thinking about anything but the past few days' events. I sat alone, at one of the breakfast tables. While I ate, I listened in to all the random conversations around me. It wasn't eaves dropping, I was just trying to distract myself.

Apparently, they were building some new stuff next to the school because parents felt their kids weren't getting enough freedom and fun after school and on weekends. Why didn't anyone think of that before building a school in the middle of the flipping desert, where there is no civilization whatsoever? Most of the kids around me were gushing about it, and I was kind of sort of almost possibly scarcely microscopically interested in it.

So, to entertain the students more, they (whoever "they" are) were building an arcade (complete with the all-time favorite air hockey machine which I was unbeatable at), a small bookstore (like Barnes N Noble only you don't have to pay for the books with money. You buy the books with "credits" you get by doing stuff in school like homework, good test grades, blah, blah, blah), and a mini theater where the teachers play a different movie every night for the students.

I thought about it. The Gasman and Iggy, and to a rare extent Dylan and possibly Fang, would enjoy the arcade, Nudge could get fashion magazines and stuff with Angel from the bookstore, and basically the entire flock would like the mini theater. Maybe we could get use to living here for a while. Even though I desperately wanted to, I couldn't tell the flock to pack up and go back to Colorado after one week. Silica or not. Near death experience or not. I made a promise to Jeb, to my mom, and to my flock that we would give this school a chance. Barely one week was not a chance. I decided to wait a month, see what happens, then think it through again. Worst comes to worst, we leave because the flock thought they could handle learning and schoolwork, but they actually couldn't.

I finished my cereal, threw out the paper bowl and plastic spoon, and almost ran into three students whom I didn't know and couldn't care less to know. They all had their arms crossed, and looked at me as if I were about to get beat up.

"Um, excuse me." I said. "I have to get to my room. My sisters are probably awake by now."

"Oh I doubt that." The shorter one said. She was standing on the right side of the three. She had short dark red hair that barely brushed her shoulders. Her eyes were a brilliant hazel, but at the moment sent shards of anger at me. Her face was heart shaped, and her figure was slim, but muscular, and she was about 5'3". I could easily make mincemeat out of her. "You and your freak siblings are known around here for three things," she continued, "one: sleeping in until three p.m. whenever you got the chance." So not true! We never slept later than twelve, one o'clock at the latest. "Two: eating like pigs with black holes for stomachs." Well, that one was a little exaggerated, but it made a pretty good simile. "And three: ruining every fun event at this school since you got here!"

…What…?

"Yeah, you and your bird gang ruined the entire party last night." The one in the middle said. She was relatively taller, but not as tall as me, with a tiny pixie-like figure. She had straight jet-black hair that fell just past her hips, dark grey eyes with blue rims, and wearing too much purple eye shadow. Her friend on the left agreed. She was about an inch taller than the red-head. She was obviously an athlete, I could tell by her strong looking arm and calf muscles, with natural light brunette hair pulled into a high, messy ponytail.

"Who are you? What the hell do you want from me?" I asked, crossing my arms, and looking superiorly down at them.

The red-head answered. "I'm Audrey, next to me is Tasha, and next to her is Robin. And we want you guys to stop butting in to everything and to just try to blend in. We were all fine before you guys showed up, now everything's screwed up."

I glared down at her, looking scarier than ever. "For your information, Audrey, none of my flock, well besides Fang, had ever been known for blending in. It's just not possible for us. And to tell you the truth, we weren't butting in to anything. Last night we were trying to save our friend's life."

"Well you didn't really do a good job," Robin said. "It looked to us like your _friend_ almost had his butt handed to him. Or, should I say, his head, in his case?" She smiled, as if she just said a funny joke or smartly dissed a nerd or something.

I stepped toward her, and put my face just inches from hers, so there was no way she could not see the scowl on my face. "You listen here, Robin," I said, very scarily and softly, "You, nor any of your little _friends_ ever talk about my flock that way. You understand? Because if I hear you making smart little jokes about my family being tortured to death, your going to get _your_ butt handed to you. Or should I say, your head?" I stepped away from her, not taking my glare away from her plate-sized eyes. "Don't mess with bird kids." I said, a little bit more loudly this time, "I mean it. You'll live to regret it."

Despite my latest death threat, I was proud of myself. I stood up to three know-it-all self-centered brats for Fang. For my entire flock, actually. The trio grunted, then stormed off. I walked back to my room, a small grin creeping onto my face.

One month later.

_RRIIIIINNGG!_

That was the bell, telling the school that it was finally the last period of the day. It was Friday again. So my flock and I had gym this period.

I said bye to my new friends, Charlotte and Marcus, who sat on either side of me in class. I met them a couple weeks ago at recess. We all realized we had a lot in common. Charlotte and I both have the same taste in style and music, and both take care of our family (she has two little brothers and one little sister that she takes care of), and Marcus and I both love flying (his dad is a pilot). So I started hanging out with them a little when I couldn't hang out with the rest of the flock, mostly because they're hanging out with new friends too.

I headed off to gym. Fang caught me by surprise when he wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed me on the cheek. I think I blushed a little. Things were almost back to normal. After school, I was facing Dylan in air hockey again. He could never beat me, and had never accepted it. Then I had to go to the bookstore to pick up a book Nudge ordered. Since when was she so into reading? After that, the entire flock and I were meeting at the theater with all our new friends to see _Ninjas on Horses Attack 3_. It was suppose to be an action movie about ninjas on horses attacking Tokyo. For the third time.

Not really my kind of movie, but the flock was really looking forward to it.

I said hi to Mr. Salome, and sat down on the bench with Fang at my side. Mr. Salome said today we were starting volleyball. I'd never really played volleyball, but I always wanted to.

It was a relatively fair game. It was Nudge, Dylan, Total and I verses Fang, Angel, Iggy and the Gasman. I have to admit, it was really fun. I spiked the ball a couple times, and we won fifteen games out of twenty. Mr. Salome said you win by getting fourteen points first. We got fourteen points in less than six minutes. It was a new state record.

I could hardly wait for all my after school events. And I remembered something as I was leaving gym. It was like… a distant memory stuffed in the back of my head. I remembered telling myself that this school was a mistake. But that I would wait it out. Wait a month. I shook it off. I wasn't leaving. Not yet. Everything was better than it had been in a very, very long time.

I walked out of the school with my hand in Fang's, looked up at the sky, and was thankful that everything worked out.

_Your welcome._ My voice said. And I smiled.

**What did you think? Good or bad for my first fanfic? I know it was really long, but you got to do what you got to do. ; ) So… please review! Thanks for reading!**

**And I am working on my new fanfic "The Girl in the Wheelchair". The story's much better than the title. : D**


	11. author's note

**Okay, a final author's note. A lot of you posted reviews asking when I was going to update.**

**I really hate to break it to you guys, but that was it.**

**The story is finished.**

**That was the ending.**

**SO if you don't like how it ended, suck it up! I liked it and nothing anyone can say can make me change my mind.**

**Reviews are still appreciated. **

**If you **_**did**_** like this story, then you can check out my other story "The Girl in the Wheelchair" which is going quite well so far.**

**Thanks for all your reviews!**

**Minnesota413 signing off. **


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